China is helping Hamas. The Middle Kingdom is providing both arms and political cover to the terrorist group as it fights Israel in the Gaza Strip. The move marks a significant departure in Beijing’s regional strategy. Israel and the U.S. should take note.
Israel Defense Forces have encountered “vast quantities of weapons manufactured by China being used in Gaza,” according to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 news. The number of weapons involved indicates that they have been brought to Gaza in an organized supply process, the report noted. The weapons include rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, radios, and advanced communications platforms. An Israeli intelligence source told the Telegraph, a newspaper based in the United Kingdom: “This is top-grade weaponry and communications technology, stuff that Hamas didn’t have before, with very sophisticated explosives which have never been found before and especially on such a large scale.”
Beijing’s support for Hamas extends to other realms.
Chinese officials have largely failed to condemn Hamas. The terrorist group and other Iranian proxies perpetrated the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the largest slaughter of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, sparking the latest war. Hamas’s barbarity is noteworthy: They tortured parents in front of their children, shot the elderly at bus stops, and set people on fire. China, however, stands with Hamas.
In late October 2023, mere weeks after the massacre, China and Russia used their vetoes to block a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Hamas, expressed Israel’s right to self-defense, and called for the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas.
The Chinese Communist Party has also used state media to push Hamas propaganda. As the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin has noted, “an unprecedented surge in antisemitism online in China could be possible only with the blessing of the Chinese government.” The CCP is using platforms that it controls, such as Weibo, to traffic in antisemitic conspiracy theories and to toe the Hamas line.
The State Department’s deputy envoy for combating antisemitism, Aaron Keyak, told Rogin: “What we saw after October 7 was a drastic change in the social media within China. The antisemitism became more unplugged, more free-flowing.” Keyak called it a “conscious decision by the Chinese government to allow that kind of rhetoric to be greatly increased.”
Beijing’s support for Hamas is noteworthy. Under CCP founder Mao Zedong, Communist China supported the Palestine Liberation Organization and other anti-Israel terrorist groups. Yet Maoist China’s support for these organizations paled in comparison to the largesse bestowed by the Soviet Union. But in recent decades, China embraced a “friends to all” strategy, which consciously refrained from taking sides in the innumerable disputes in the Middle East. Beijing has sought to avoid conflict, eschewing the use of hard power in favor of business and commercial interests.
More recently, the CCP has increased its ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism. China wants Iran’s oil and hopes to use Tehran as a regional foil against the United States and its allies. This has necessitated a change in its approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For its part, Washington has been unwilling to appreciate the nature of growing Sino-Iranian relations.
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The U.S. has long been concerned about links between China, its sole peer adversary, and Israel, its longtime ally. Jerusalem and Beijing have maintained close relations for the past two decades. China covets and has received advanced Israeli technology, and Israel, like many of its neighbors, wants Chinese money and investments.
The world is bifurcating, just like during the last Cold War. China has chosen a side. As war between China and the U.S. grows more likely, both Washington and Jerusalem should recognize that the world is dividing into blocs — and it is clear where Beijing stands.
The writer is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.