THE NEW YORK TIMES: China’s state-run media has blamed the United States for deepening the crisis, while perpetuating tropes of Jewish control of American politics.
As the Israel-Hamas conflict intensifies, raising the prospect of a wider war, China has stepped up efforts to pitch itself as a neutral broker for Mideast peace.
Beijing’s top diplomat called his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts on Monday, urging restraint. A Chinese envoy is traveling in the Middle East, pledging to help avert a wider war. At the United Nations on Wednesday, China vetoed a resolution on the war that did not call for a cease-fire.
But even as China seeks to turn down the temperature diplomatically, a surge of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment is proliferating across the Chinese internet and state media, undermining Beijing’s efforts to convey impartiality. China has already come under pressure from the United States and Israel for its refusal to condemn Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack that started the war.
On China’s heavily censored internet, inflammatory speech critical of Israel is rampant, with commenters seemingly emboldened by that refusal. And China’s state-run media is seizing on the conflict to accuse the United States of turning a blind eye to Israeli aggression, while perpetuating tropes of Jewish control of American politics.
China Daily, a state-run newspaper, ran an editorial on Monday declaring that the United States was on the “wrong side of history in Gaza.” It said Washington was exacerbating the conflict by “blindly backing Israel.” » | Daisuke Wakabayashi, Tiffany May and Claire Fu | Saturday, October 28, 2023
