By: Dr. Alaa Aldeek[1].
Preface
Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Global Governance Initiative at the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” meeting held in September 2025, in the Chinese city of Tianjin, in light of the current international system’s shortcomings in addressing pressing political, security and development issues. The system, based on international law and the UN Charter, urgently needs to restore global security and peace. The Middle East, in particular, faces escalating conflicts that require effective application of international law and governance to resolve outstanding issues, most importantly, a just and lasting resolution of the Palestine issue. As the region’s central issue, it remains key to achieving security, stability and peace. This initiative is therefore crucial for promoting security, stability and prosperity for all. As a major country and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China demonstrates its commitment to fulfilling its responsibilities in international affairs.
Abstract
The Global Governance Initiative is expected to have a significant and decisive impact on governance in the Middle East, based on five main principles, namely sovereign equality, respect for international law, multilateralism, prioritizing people, and taking concrete action. “There should be no double standards, and the house rules of a few countries must not be imposed upon others.” the Chinese President emphasized. These principles provide the framework and mechanisms needed to reform and improve global governance and justice. This study examines the prospects and effectiveness of the “Global Governance Initiative” towards advancing Middle East governance, particularly through resolving the Palestine issue, which remains the region’s central issue and a major barrier to effective governance.
This requires a serious and responsible dialogue among Arab and regional parties to enhance coordination and cooperation with China in order to adopt and advance the principles and goals of this initiative. The success of the initiative would embody multilateralism in the current international system away from exclusivity and control by certain powers, such as the US, and thus the application of international law through justice and equality in rights and duties, based on partnership and mutual respect for all without exception. Accordingly, this initiative represents a genuine, effective and consistent opportunity to uphold the international system, steer it toward justice and integrity, address outstanding issues in the region, most importantly the Palestine issue, and thus achieve peace, stability and prosperity.
The study will analyze and discuss the importance of launching the Global Governance Initiative at this critical time, given the systematic disregard by the United States and Israel for international law, particularly regarding a just resolution of the Palestine issue, and the resulting threat to security, stability, and peace in the Middle East and beyond. This comes alongside the rise of unilateral measures in the region that violate the state sovereignty, interfere in domestic affairs and threaten people’s lives and basic needs. Furthermore, the international community’s efforts to halt regional conflicts are often undermined by the use of veto powers, while material and military support for Israel continues, alongside political and diplomatic backing in international forums.
As a result, the study also examines prospects and developments of the Arab position regarding support for this initiative, as well as the concrete steps these countries may take to cooperate with China in implementing it, aiming to reform and enhance the effectiveness of the current international system. This includes assessing the extent to which Arab states can take tangible measures to activate the Arab Peace Initiative, resolve the Palestine issue, and protect their sovereignty and citizens’ rights before pursuing further steps toward normalization with Israel. It also involves evaluating their reliance on US efforts to ensure regional security and stability. Success in these areas would strengthen the new Chinese initiative, paving the way for a more credible and equitable multilateral international system capable of governing the Middle East and achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting resolution of the Palestine issue in accordance with international law.
Global Governance Initiative
At the end of the Shanghai Plus summit in Tianjin, northern China, on 1/9/2025, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the “Global Governance Initiative,” which emphasized sovereign equality, adherence to international law, multilateralism, a people-centered approach, and commitment to achieving tangible results. This initiative responds to a volatile global situation requiring greater joint action and cooperation to safeguard international peace and security. It calls for a reconsideration of the international system and its institutions based on justice, fairness and the rule of law, while moving away from hegemonic influence. With the current UN General Assembly’s “eightieth session,” there is an urgent need to reevaluate the international system on the basis of mutual respect, regardless of a country’s size, wealth or power, and to strengthen multilateral decision-making to address global challenges in accordance with justice and international law.
The importance of announcing this initiative lies in protecting the international system from collapse due to unilateral US and Western policies that ignore the rule of law in resolving outstanding critical issues, foremost among them the Palestine issue. It represents an urgent and sustained call to assume moral, legal and humanitarian responsibility for all, ensuring the preservation of global security, peace and stability before it’s too late.
Global Governance
Global governance means cooperation to prevent loss through the development of laws, standards and mechanisms to address shared international challenges. Without these, the international system fails in its primary purpose: preserving security, peace and prosperity for all.
Achieving this requires dialogue, understanding and consultation among all actors, prioritizing the public interest over narrow or partisan agendas. The international system and its institutions must serve as reference for respecting global consensus on outstanding issues, ensuring justice and fairness through integrity and transparency in applying international law to all without exception. Effective global governance demands a pluralistic and objective approach, particularly on critical issues such as the Palestine issue, applying international law decisively to achieve justice and equality rather than favoring one party at the expense of another.
Governance of the current international system has become essential amid growing conflicts, divisions and wars that threaten people’s lives and the future of their countries. This is necessary to achieve genuine consensus in decision-making under the rule of law and equality, rather than unilateral actions that endanger international security and peace.
Middle East Governance
Achieving governance in the Middle East requires both regional cooperation among states to address conflicts and effective state institutions that ensure justice, equal rights, and quality services. These elements align with the principles of the Global Governance Initiative, particularly prioritizing people’s needs, promoting human development, and ensuring justice in unresolved issues such as “the Palestine issue,” whose absence of resolution continues to fuel instability regionally and internationally.
The relationship between the Global Governance Initiative and Middle East governance is direct, especially regarding the Palestine issue, which requires the application of international justice through the implementation of relevant UN resolutions and international law. This entails upholding multilateralism, the rule of law and equality to secure Palestinian rights, an issue China regards as central to achieving regional security and stability. Without a just resolution, international justice, the credibility of the global system, and effective Middle East governance all remain absent. Governance in the region means stability, sovereignty and the security of its people yet these are endangered under the current failure of global governance. Therefore, serious cooperation to adopt the Global Governance Initiative is essential, as resolving the Palestine issue is the key to addressing broader regional conflicts and achieving lasting security, peace and prosperity.
Challenges
The US unilateral policies deliberately ignore resolving the Palestine issue, reject any international consensus, and provide financial, military and political support to Israel. At the same time, it resists cooperation with other international actors to promote multilateralism and justice in addressing global crises, especially the Palestine issue. Consequently, it dismisses Chinese initiatives in international forums, even when widely welcomed by other member states for aligning with international law and the UN Charter.
Israel’s persistent non-compliance with international law and UN resolutions, particularly those addressing the Palestine issue, has been accompanied by unilateral measures in Palestine and other parts of the Middle East that threaten the regional stability and international peace. Despite repeated calls by the UN General Assembly and Security Council to halt the war on Gaza, allow humanitarian aid, lift the blockade, and end its unilateral actions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel continues to defy international consensus. Moreover, it interferes in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, launching attacks under the pretext of combating extremism and terrorism, while pushing to reshape the region’s map in line with its security interests and vision of a “greater Israel,” disregarding the sovereignty, rights and security of other countries.
US-Israeli policies are among the key challenges to achieving the goals of the Global Governance Initiative and genuine governance in the Middle East. Backed by Western allies, they work to preserve the existing international order by tightening influence and control to protect their interests, generating new crises and conflicts, especially in the Middle East. These crises absorb global attention while major powers remain divided on solutions, as the US will veto any Security Council resolution supported by China and its partners. Such deadlock turns events on the ground into humanitarian crises, imposing new responsibilities on the international system, as happened in the ongoing war in Gaza.
Future Prospects
It is the responsibility of the member states, regional and Arab countries, and all nations that respect international law and the UN Charter to demand “effective and resolute” cooperation with China in reforming the current international system. This is essential to resolving outstanding global issues, especially the Palestine issue, and to achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, which remains central to international security.
The launch of the Global Governance Initiative to reform international institutions and the UN Charter presents a historic opportunity to curb the spread of chaos and war, and to advance peace, stability and prosperity. Central to this is correcting historical injustices by restoring the legitimate rights of the weak and oppressed in accordance with international law and the principle of equality. This is a collective responsibility that requires “serious and resolute” cooperation and urgent joint action to rescue the international system before it is too late.
Conclusion
The Global Governance Initiative can play a positive and effective role in advancing governance in the Middle East. By promoting multilateralism, upholding international law, ensuring equality in sovereignty and rights, prioritizing people’s needs, and taking “firm” practical measures, it can help achieve international justice and equity, and thereby address all regional issues, especially the Palestine issue.
This confirms the “steady and continuous” effectiveness of Chinese diplomacy in addressing Middle East issues to promote security, stability, peace and prosperity. China adheres to the international order, international law and the UN Charter, not to replace or weaken them, but to strengthen them as a common reference based on multilateral cooperation, respect for sovereignty and equality of rights and duties grounded in justice and fairness.
Accordingly, stronger and more “serious and responsible” Palestinian, Arab and regional cooperation is needed to support China’s efforts in making the Global Governance Initiative a success. The US, however, will continue to interfere in Palestinian, Arab and regional affairs to obstruct any joint effort that supports China’s role in the Middle East, as it seeks to maintain a divided and unstable region.
[1] Researcher and specialist on Chinese affairs and international relations.
[1] Researcher and specialist on Chinese affairs and international relations.
Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations, 18/9/2025
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