China is forging a new model of mediation diplomacy that promotes regional countries fostering primary ownership for local security

On March 31, Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar paid an official visit to Beijing.

Following the meeting, China and Pakistan unveiled a joint five-point initiative for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East region, calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the hostilities, the launch of peace negotiations as soon as possible, the protection of civilians and non-military targets, the safeguarding of maritime shipping security, and upholding the central role of the United Nations Charter.

The talks between the Chinese and Pakistani foreign ministers and the subsequent five-point initiative epitomize the growing maturity of China's mediation diplomacy.

Pakistan's emergence as a key mediator between the United States and Iran does not imply that China has been sidelined from Middle East mediation efforts. On the contrary, actively supporting regional countries in having a sense of primary ownership of local security helps China forge a new model of major-country mediation diplomacy rooted in multilateralism, coordination and collective action.

Pakistan, which shares a border with Iran, has signed a security agreement with Saudi Arabia, and maintains friendly relations with the US. As a key player in the broader Middle East region, it has a direct stake in regional stability, and these unique advantages enable it to play an important role in the efforts to de-escalate tensions and advance peace negotiations.

More importantly, while the Middle East has seen no shortage of mediation initiatives over the past decades, those led by external major powers through hard-power coercion have proved unsustainable and ended in failure. This is partly because external powers often take sides, and partly because regional countries have long outsourced their security to external actors, leaving them without genuine ownership of regional security governance.

In recent years, Middle Eastern countries have increasingly recognized that such an externally dependent security order is no longer viable. Gulf states including Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have stepped up their own mediation diplomacy. Even before the 2023 Beijing-brokered Saudi-Iranian reconciliation, both Riyadh and Tehran had already shown a strong willingness to improve relations, with regional countries such as Oman and Iraq having carried out extensive mediation efforts with support from other Gulf nations. Therefore, Beijing's successful mediation also reflected China's alignment with regional trends, coordination with all involved parties and parallel progress in bilateral and multilateral processes.

Effective mediation requires the backing of a major power that possesses both moral legitimacy and substantial practical influence. And the influence of China's mediation diplomacy derives chiefly from its moral legitimacy and economic connectivity.

In terms of legitimacy, China has unequivocally condemned the violations of international law by the US and Israel from the outset of the Iran conflict. By contrast, the EU mentioned Iran 13 times in its statement while remaining silent on the actions of the US and Israel.

In terms of economic ties, China is the biggest trading partner of Iran and nearly all the Gulf nations, including Qatar, the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Iraq. On the multilateral front, China held the first China-Arab States Summit in 2022, followed by the first China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in 2025. Its Belt and Road Initiative has further deepened regional integration and forged closer economic, trade and logistics ties between the Gulf region and China.

In contrast, US influence in the Middle East rests predominantly on military alliances, military base deployments, networks of arms sales and security assistance. It maintains military bases and troop presences in Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Yet a key lesson that Gulf states have drawn from the ongoing Iran conflict is that such military alliance frameworks have failed to deliver genuine security and stability.

While the China-Pakistan five-point initiative admittedly lacks binding enforcement arrangements, it lays out fundamental guiding principles for returning to the original spirit of diplomatic mediation on the Iranian nuclear issue a decade ago. Many may have forgotten the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which entered into force in January 2016. Following lengthy and arduous negotiations, Iran reached the agreement in July 2015 with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, namely China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US, plus Germany and the European Union, and it was endorsed in UN Security Council Resolution 2231, granting the agreement international legal force.

At its core, the JCPOA rested on Iran's commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and acceptance of the International Atomic Energy Agency's most rigorous inspection regime; in return, the international community, led by the US and Europe, agreed to lift sanctions on Iran. The agreement was established with a relatively clear and balanced implementation mechanism, and Iran fulfilled its commitments between 2016 and 2018, with the IAEA repeatedly verifying its compliance. However, the US' unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018 and the re-imposition of sanctions led Iran to gradually reduce its compliance.

Accordingly, the key to resolving the current Middle East crisis and de-escalating the Iran conflict is not to impose rigid new frameworks, but to return to the original spirit of the decade-old diplomatic agreement.

The JCPOA embodies a vital principle of effective mediation diplomacy: the balanced accommodation of the core interests of conflicting parties. The Barack Obama administration was able to conclude the deal largely because it recognized that Washington's core interest was preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, while Tehran's core interest was safeguarding its national security and regime stability.

Effective mediation in the Middle East therefore requires rebuilding a shared cognitive foundation: focusing on the core interests of all parties rather than attempting to resolve every issue at once.

In recent years, China's mediation diplomacy has achieved major breakthroughs in practice. The year 2023 saw the historic facilitation of Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, followed in 2024 by the successful mediation of intra-Palestinian factional reconciliation. In 2025, the International Mediation Institute was established in Hong Kong, the world's first international organization dedicated to mediation.

Against this backdrop, since the outbreak of the current Iranian crisis, the international community has placed high expectations on China to play a role in mediating the Middle East impasse. International discussions on the crisis and China's role have, in essence, reflected strong expectations for its active engagement in global hotspot issues and for Chinese solutions.

Judging from the current situation in Iran, China's mediation diplomacy has demonstrated at least three core features. First, it seeks to mobilize all positive forces for collective action rather than relying on its own "magic power". Second, its influence stems mainly from the combined strength of economic bonds and moral legitimacy, not from military projection or coercive pressure. Third, it focuses on reshaping the evolving perceptions of all parties toward the strategic landscape, their respective interests and roles, rather than fixating merely on power dynamics and interest distribution.

The author is a professor at the School of International Studies at Nanjing University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.