BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will pay a state visit to China on Friday and Saturday.
Abbas was born in 1935 in Safed, northern Palestine. Later in life, he earned a PhD degree in history at the Oriental College in Moscow.
Abbas has devoted much of his life to the struggle for an independent Palestinian state. He co-founded the Palestine National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in 1959.
In the beginning of 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 named chairman of the PLO Executive Committee in November 2004.
Abbas won the PNA chairmanship in January 2005 and was elected Palestinian president in November 2008.
