BEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will pay a state visit to China from July 17 to July 20 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Abbas was born in 1935 in Safed, northern Palestine. He earned a PhD degree in history at the Oriental College in Moscow.
Abbas took part in the founding of the Palestine National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in 1959. In the 1990s, Abbas participated in the Middle East Conference in Madrid as the Palestinian chief negotiator.
He also held several rounds of negotiations with Israel in the Norwegian capital Oslo, paving the way for the signing of the first peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis.
On Sept. 13, 1993, Abbas and then Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres signed the Declaration of Principles on interim self-government arrangements, or the so-called Oslo Accords, in Washington.
In 1996, Abbas was elected secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee.
He served as the first Palestinian prime minister between April and September 2003. He was elected as chairman of the PLO Executive Committee in November 2004 after Yasser Arafat passed away.
Abbas was elected chairman of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in January 2005 and Palestinian president in November 2008. He was elected chairman of the Fatah Central Committee in August 2009, and re-elected in November 2016.
Abbas is married with three children. He paid three state visits to China in May 2005, April 2010 and May 2013, respectively.
