Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel must stop and reverse its "forced establishment" of settlements in the West Bank, China's foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The two officials met on the sidelines of the Seventh Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Wang attended the summit as the special representative of President Xi Jinping.
"The Palestinian question is the greatest historical injustice of this century," Wang said, according to the ministry's statement.
Wang reaffirmed China's longstanding position that a two-state solution is the correct path to resolving the conflict. He said the immediate priority is to fully open access to the Gaza Strip and prevent the further spread of a humanitarian catastrophe.
China is willing to work with the international community to push all parties to return to dialogue and seek a political settlement, Wang added.
Herzog said he was "pleased" to meet Wang and that their talks "focused on the relations between our countries and the situation in the Middle East." He wrote on X: "I emphasised Israel's desire for peace in the region, alongside the strategic threats to our security, first and foremost from Iran and its terror proxies."
The meeting comes more than a year after a ceasefire began in October 2025, following the first phase of a US-brokered deal to end the war in Gaza. The conflict was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Despite the ceasefire halting large-scale bombardment, Israel has continued near-daily strikes in Gaza. More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect. Progress toward the deal's next phase has stalled, with both Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating its terms.
China has been a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause and has increasingly sought to position itself as a mediator in Middle East conflicts. In 2023, Beijing brokered a deal to restore diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. In 2024, it brought rival Palestinian factions to an agreement to form an interim national reconciliation government for the West Bank and Gaza, though the agreement was never implemented.
China maintains close ties with Iran. According to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China was Iran's largest trading partner, purchasing up to 90 percent of its oil. In 2021, Beijing signed a 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with Tehran.
In March, China criticised US and Israeli attacks on Iran and demanded an immediate halt to the strikes. Wang told his Israeli counterpart at the time that the attack came as negotiations between Washington and Tehran had "made significant progress, including addressing Israel's security concerns."
At the same time, Beijing has cultivated closer ties with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the past decade, and remains a major trade partner of both the United States and Israel.
In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Cairo for the first time in a decade, calling on Middle East countries to oppose external influence and consider reshaping the region's security order. Talks during that visit covered the conflict with Iran, with both Xi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi urging diplomatic solutions and a comprehensive agreement to end the war, according to a statement from el-Sisi's spokesperson.
