Beijing claims to be a “friend” to Israel, but signs of any such friendship have been in short supply in recent days.
In the wake of the bloody weekend terrorist attack on Israel, China has effectively thrown its lot in with Hamas — a clear indication it sees its interests in the Middle East as bound up with those of Iran.
In multiple statements on the violence, the Chinese foreign ministry has repeatedly declined to use the words “Hamas” or “terrorism.”
Indeed, China refuses even to acknowledge the fact of an attack on Israel.
“China is deeply concerned over the current escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel. We call on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint and immediately end the hostilities,” its spokesperson said.
China offers Hamas the prospect of impunity — the prospect that it can continue ruling Gaza with an iron fist while Israelis mourn their dead.
This language may not be Hamas-tested, but it is certainly Hamas-approved.
A Chinese information-warfare network, meanwhile, is boosting anti-Israel, pro-Hamas narratives in the United States.
As New Lines Magazine and The New York Times have detailed over the last two years, BreakThrough News, a perhaps unwitting cog in that network, has ties to an American businessman who shares office space with a propaganda outfit in Shanghai and attends Chinese Communist Party forums on global propaganda work in his spare time.
In recent days, BreakThrough News has described Hamas’ acts of terror as an “unprecedented military operation launched by a broad coalition of Palestinian resistance factions.”
The Chinese Communist Party is likely not providing direct guidance to BreakThrough News and others in the network on how to cover the war in Israel.
But the party is more than comfortable with narratives that are critical of the United States and American alliances — and that shape a global information environment in which Iran and China’s other illiberal partners can more easily pursue their interests at the free world’s expense.
Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to visit China this month.
Why, after decades of investing in deeper bilateral ties, would Beijing be so quick to forsake Jerusalem?
China values Israel’s wealth and high-tech economy, but it values Iran’s energy resources and propensity for sowing disorder even more.
After all, China willingly signed on to the full Iran Experience in a secretive deal two years ago, agreeing to invest $400 billion in the Islamic Republic over 25 years.
Iran, of course, is Hamas’ primary patron, a fact well known in Beijing.
In a somewhat surprising turn, Iran has become a patron of Russia, too, arming Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
In the lead-up to that war, China and Russia released a joint statement in which they declared a “no limits” friendship and agreed to “strongly condemn actions aimed at denying the responsibility for atrocities of Nazi aggressors.”
Days later, Kremlin tanks rolled into Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “denazify” the country and described its leaders — presumably including the Jewish president — as “neo-Nazis.”
In its founding charter, Hamas likewise refers to the Jewish people as guilty of “Zionist Nazi activities.”
Holocaust denial, of course, is a favorite pastime of Iranian leaders.
So why did China throw in its lot with Hamas?
It may be as simple as this: When given a choice, Beijing can’t help but side with evil.