Palestinian president to pay state visit

Abbas' trip to China points to strong, historical, friendly bilateral relations

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will pay a four-day state visit to China from Tuesday in a further sign of warm and friendly historical ties between the two nations.

Calling Abbas, who has visited China several times, "an old and good friend of the Chinese people", Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday the visit speaks volumes about the high level of friendly relations between China and Palestine.

Ties between the two countries have maintained a good growth momentum in recent years under the personal guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Abbas, with stronger political mutual trust and deeper friendship between the two peoples, Wang said at a daily news conference.

China will work with Palestine to follow through on the common understandings of their heads of state and promote the countries' traditional friendship to a new level, Wang said.

Speaking on the question of Palestine, Wang said on Friday the question is "at the heart of the Middle East issue, and matters to the region's peace and stability and international equity and justice".

"China has all along firmly supported the Palestinian people's just cause of restoring their legitimate national rights," he said.

As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, China will continue to work with the world for a comprehensive, just, enduring solution to the question at an early date, the spokesman said.

China was among the first countries to have recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine.

For 10 consecutive years, Xi has sent congratulatory messages to the UN's annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Xi has also on several occasions put forward China's proposals for resolving the question of Palestine, emphasizing the need for a political resolution based on the two-state solution and calling for intensified international efforts for peace.

In another development, Wang commented on US media reports that claim China and Cuba have agreed to set up a Chinese "spy facility" capable of monitoring communications across the southeastern part of the United States.

The reports have already been dismissed and denied by Washington and Havana.

It's a "habitual practice" for the US, a "hacker empire" and a "major surveillance country", to make rumors and smear other countries, Wang said on Friday.

The US, which has wantonly interfered in other countries' internal affairs, has also been "usurping Guantanamo Bay from Cuba for ulterior deeds", and has imposed an embargo on Cuba for more than six decades, the spokesman said. "The US should do more to improve ties with Cuba and to facilitate regional peace and stability," he said.