Since the Hamas movement's attack on Israel on October 7, and then Israel responded by launching a war on the Gaza Strip, China has taken a position rejecting the war and criticizing the targeting of Palestinian civilians.
The newspaper said in a report published on Saturday that this position caused great damage to relations between the two sides, and Tel Aviv accused Beijing of supporting the Hamas movement, and not just Palestinian civilians.
She cited several positions by Beijing, including that it highlighted the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their country, and did not condemn Hamas, but rather, together with Russia, blocked a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning the movement, and in November, in her capacity as the international president of the Council, she led emergency discussions aimed at condemning Israel.
Israeli diplomats were also frustrated that the Chinese authorities “covered up” the stabbing of the Israeli consul’s partner by a man in Beijing believed to be an extremist, according to the press report.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported Israel's astonishment that Beijing did not condemn Hamas even with the killing of 4 Chinese in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation launched by Hamas. Rather, Foreign Minister Wang Wei, while chairing a discussion in the Security Council in late November, described the actions of the Israeli army. It is considered “collective punishment” and the transfer of Palestinian civilians inside Gaza is “forced displacement”.
In addition, the newspaper accused Beijing of sponsoring what it considered anti-Israel propaganda on social media to influence global public opinion.
Stop selling weapons to Israel
In a previous report, the same newspaper said that China has refrained since October 7 from supplying components used in high-tech factories to Israel.
She described the matter as being like punishments. These components were also used in military industries.
China did not announce that it was imposing trade sanctions on Israel, nor did it respond to reports of this.
China's most prominent positions since October 7
- On October 13, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the cause of the conflict between Israel and Hamas was the “historical injustice” suffered by the Palestinians and the long delay in achieving their aspirations to establish an independent state, during his meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Beijing.
- On October 25, Beijing, in cooperation with Moscow, thwarted by using its veto power a draft American resolution in the Security Council condemning Hamas.
- To put an end to the war, China expressed its willingness to mediate between Israel and Hamas, and China's special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, met with several parties during October.
- The Minister of Foreign Affairs chaired the Security Council session on Gaza, on November 29, during which he demanded that the temporary truce be converted into a permanent ceasefire, stressing his country’s rejection of the forced displacement of the residents of Gaza.
Taiwan crisis in the Gaza war
The expert on Chinese affairs, Mazen Hassan, links the Chinese position rejecting the American-backed Israeli war on Gaza, and its conflicts with Washington over global influence, especially in the following files, as he explains to the “Sky News Arabia” website:
- Beijing's anger at Washington's intervention in Taiwan, indicating that China's side with the Palestinians against Israel is a response to Washington's side with the Taiwanese against China.
- Beijing also wants to put its foot in the Middle East through the number one issue in the region, which is Palestine.
- China is trying to move its diplomatic battles with the United States from its territory to another place, such as the Middle East. It had previously followed a policy of distancing itself from crises that had nothing to do with it, but it felt that in doing so it had left a large space for American intervention in these crises, and it had no space to respond. In it on what is happening in Taiwan or elsewhere.
- This also appeared in the Chinese mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which ended with an agreement to restore diplomatic relations between the country after long years of estrangement.
These tensions between two major powers, China
and the United States, “gave Palestine a great advantage in gaining the support of Beijing and Moscow, to the point that they intervene to obstruct any draft resolution in the Security Council that is not in its favor,” according to Hassan’s assessment.
A bigger role is coming
International affairs expert, Jasser Matar, agrees that China’s position on the Gaza war is in line with its quest to be a “new global pole,” and its awareness that this is linked to its presence in the Middle East, especially with regard to the Palestinian issue.
Matar expects that China “will play a greater role in the future in the Palestinian issue, even if it is currently limited to supporting the Arabs in the Security Council.”
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