A China expert believes that behind Mr. Wang’s statement is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) consistent anti-American, anti-Western stance.
On Oct. 7, hundreds of Hamas terrorists broke through Israel’s border fence and carried out bloody massacres in more than twenty towns and neighborhoods, burning homes and killing villagers, including babies. It is confirmed that more than 1,400 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed.
On Oct. 13, at a press conference following the conclusion of the China–EU High-Level Strategic Dialogue, the Chinese foreign minister stated that the root cause of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict was an unrealized Palestinian aspiration for statehood.
“Israel has the right to statehood, so does Palestine. The Israelis have obtained the safeguards for survival, but who will care about the survival of the Palestinians? The Jewish nation is no longer homeless in the world, but when will the Palestinian nation return to its home?” he said.
Ceasefire Agreements ‘Enabled Hamas to Survive and Strike Again’
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Carl Schuster, former director of operations at U.S. Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center, said that Beijing’s effort to please its Middle Eastern allies comes at the cost of its goodwill with Israel.
“Israeli leaders remember that the last two ‘ceasefire and peace agreements’ simply enabled Hamas to survive and strike again. They are not interested in a ceasefire or agreement that leaves Hamas intact and able to strike again,” he said.
Founded in 1987, Hamas is an antisemitic organization dedicated to the extinction of Israel. Hamas has turned Gaza into a base for terrorist attacks against Israel.
Hamas urged Palestinian citizens not to flee in the face of Israeli attacks and actively thwarted evacuation efforts. Israel, meanwhile, has taken measures to protect Palestinian civilians, such as dropping leaflets and warning civilians to leave military targets before attacks.
“We know that Hamas are using innocent Palestinian civilians as human shields; they have embedded themselves in civilian communities,” Tom Tugendhat, the UK’s Minister of State for Security, told the UN on Tuesday.
During the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Hamas carried out a massacre at a music festival, raping women and taking babies and the elderly hostage.
Yet in the face of such attacks initiated by a terrorist organization, the CCP flatly asked Israel to “exercise restraint” and cease “hostile actions.”
China ‘Abandoned’ Its Balancing Act
Mr. Schuster said that the CCP’s policies in the Middle East are based on its opposition to Western policies, particularly those of the United States.“Beijing has been a ‘rejectionist power’ since the PRC [People’s Republic of China] was founded,” he said.
In February 2023, as the West was sanctioning Iran for its development of nuclear weapons, CCP leader Xi Jinping visited Iran to show his support for the Iranian regime.
Mr. Xi and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended the signing of 20 cooperation agreements including trade and tourism, adding to the previous 25-year strategy agreement, signed in 2021, to cooperate on oil, industrial, and other developments.
Beijing has also maintained a friendly political and economic relationship with UN-sanctioned Syria. The Chinese leader hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad in September, giving him a high-level reception and declaring: “The establishment of a strategic partnership between China and Syria will become an important milestone in the history of bilateral relations, continuing from the past and opening up to the future.”
In its coverage of the ongoing Israeli–Hamas conflict, the CCP’s state-run media have emphasized Israel’s bombing of Gaza rather than the Hamas attack, even accusing Washington of so-called “malign interference” in the Middle East.
“I see China has moved closer to the Palestinian position. They are calling for a ceasefire but have dropped all pretense of a neutral position,” Mr. Schuster said. “They are using the war to condemn the U.S., placing blame for the conflict on America.”
A 75-Year Partnership
Mr. Shuster pointed out that U.S. support for Israel was initially based on the American public’s support for the establishment of the state of Israel. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the United States was the first country to recognize Israel’s national status.
Mr. Corr concurred: “Jewish people wanted their own land in Israel after the Holocaust and before. This seemed reasonable and was supported by most states in the international system after World War II.”
After the establishment of Israel, successive U.S. governments have declared that the United States will unwaveringly support Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Oct. 12, pledging that the United States will never falter from its support for Israel and condemning Hamas for a “litany of brutality and inhumanity.”
