As the Israel-Gaza conflict unfolds, China is positioning itself as a peace broker, but it has yet to condemn the Hamas militants who sparked the crisis.
Tuvia Gering, a researcher at the Tel Aviv University-affiliated Institute for National Security Studies, explained why in an interview with the Spectator-produced podcast Chinese Whispers.
Gering is one of 360,000 Israeli reservists who have been called up for military duty following the October 7 surprise attack by Gaza-based Hamas, which killed at least 1,400 Israelis. The Hamas-controlled health ministry has said at least 3,785 Palestinians have died in the Israeli air strikes that followed.
While China has continued to call for restraint and a cease-fire, it has stopped short of calling out Hamas by name for the Islamist group's initial barrage of rockets or its massacres in Israeli communities.
Meanwhile, netizens posting about the conflict on China's heavily censored social media are overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, with many posting antisemitic views that have been circulating for years in the country. Many posts made in support of Israel's right to defense have been quickly scrubbed.
Gering shared what he believes drives these anti-Israel narratives, which he has made a yearslong pastime of following: "With one stone, you can kill six birds."
One of these "birds" can be traced back to China's early support for the Palestinian cause in the 1950s. Another is China's aspiration to be viewed as a leader on the world stage, Gering said, referring to China's calls for a united front in the Islamic world and moves to drum up support for it among developing countries.
Earlier this year, China helped broker a deal for Saudi Arabia and Iran to reestablish ties.
China also needs to make a show of support for those in the Arab world who have backed what Beijing says are its core interests, such as the region of Xinjiang, where its harsh treatment of the Muslim-majority population has been called a genocide by Washington.
China got a PR boost in June with a visit by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority that controls the West Bank, and has on several occasions invited journalists from Muslim countries on staged tours of Xinjiang to encourage glowing reports.
Yet another "bird" is China's souring relationship with the U.S., which is at its lowest point in decades. China feels it must "oppose everything the U.S. supports on principle," which includes its close ally Israel, with which China has until now maintained cordial ties and which is China's second-largest supplier of military technology.
For years, Beijing has been "making all these Chinese solutions and Chinese wisdom and saying it wants to be a major power." He quoted the Chinese leader as saying terrorism is the enemy of mankind, "but it appears that mankind doesn't include Jews."
China's ambassador to the U.N. on Thursday blasted the U.S. for vetoing a resolution drafted by Brazil calling for a pause in the fighting to allow much-needed aid into Gaza. The U.S. said the direct diplomacy it was engaged in "on the ground" should be given time to progress first.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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