China’s communist regime hasn’t explicitly condemned the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s attacks on Israel and the massacre of Israeli civilians that occurred on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) media reposted a blog post warning the United States that “if you interfere with our Taiwan Strait, we will interfere with your Israel.”
CCP leader Xi Jinping’s recent direct contact with three Middle Eastern leaders before the attacks has attracted international attention.
Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel as large numbers of terrorists sneaked into the country on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 Israelis and taking 100 to 150 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has launched counterattacks, and the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government has declared war on Hamas.
While democratic countries worldwide have condemned Hamas’s attacks and atrocities, the CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Oct. 8 that it was deeply concerned about the “escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel” and called for an “immediate ceasefire.”
It also again mentioned the “two-state solution” and called for establishing an independent Palestinian state.
Israel’s embassy to China on Oct. 8 on X, formerly known as Twitter, called on the CCP authorities to condemn Hamas’s attacks. The CCP’s foreign ministry refused.
On Oct. 11, Zhai Jun, the CCP’s special envoy for the Middle East, had a phone call with the Palestinian First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Amal Jadou regarding the situation between Israel and Palestine.
Mr. Zhai expressed concern about the security and humanitarian situation in Palestine and supported the establishment of a Palestinian state, according to Chinese official media.
Officials from the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked the CCP for its long-term support for Palestine and said that Palestine “trusts” the CCP.
Israel
Ifeng, a CCP official media outlet registered in Hong Kong, reposted a blog post on Oct. 7 titled “If you interfere with our Taiwan Strait, we will interfere with your Israel.” The post was written by a Chinese blogger under the name that can be translated as “Drawing Lessons from History.”The blog post criticized U.S. actions in the South China Sea and said the United States had hindered Taiwan’s “return” to China and that China had endured it for long enough.
“This time, China is ready to counterattack the United States, establish close cooperation with Syria, and attack Israel, which is the American pawn,” the post stated.
The post was deleted on Oct. 9 from ifeng.com, but can still be found on Toutiao, a Chinese news and information content platform owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Writer and current affairs commentator Cai Shenkun told The Epoch Times on Oct. 9 that Hamas’s attack was carefully prepared.
“It was a large-scale, high-risk attack, which can serve as a great reference for the CCP’s planning to invade Taiwan,” he said.
Cai Shenkun said that the CCP may have learned from the success of Hamas’s sudden attack to deal with Taiwan next.
“Because the chaos in Israel and the entire Middle East will affect the U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific and its role in the Taiwan Strait. It will distract Western countries, and they would be too busy to respond [when China invades Taiwan]. If the crisis in the Middle East and the war between Russia and Ukraine cannot be resolved well, there will soon be a major risk of war [over the Taiwan Strait],” he said.
“Hamas was able to obtain thousands of rockets under the comprehensive arms embargo, which shows it’s definitely supported by bigger powers. It’s not just Iran; I believe China and Russia have played a role in this. “
A report by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 8 said that Iran helped Hamas to plot the attack, in addition to providing long-term support of the U.S.-recognized terrorist group with funds, weapons, and training.
China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement with Iran in 2021 to inject $300 billion to $400 billion in foreign direct investment into the Iranian oil, gas, and petrochemical industries, which has stabilized and strengthened the economy of the Middle Eastern regime that was on the brink of collapse.
Xi Meets Middle Eastern Leaders
While Mr. Xi has rarely met with foreign officials in recent years, he has met with leaders of Palestine, Iran, and Syria in recent months before the Hamas attacks.
Mr. Xi met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on June 14 in Beijing, where he stressed that China was one of the first countries to recognize the state of Palestine. Mr. Xi also said that China “has always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and promote an early comprehensive, just, and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue.”
At that time, China and Palestine announced the establishment of a “strategic partnership.”
On Aug. 24, Mr. Xi met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during the BRICS leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg. At the summit, the CCP supported Iran becoming a formal BRICS member.
The CCP invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend the opening ceremony at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which concluded on Oct. 9, and provided him with transportation on a special private jet. Mr. Xi also accompanied Mr. Assad on a visit to the Lingyin Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples in China.
Hamas restored ties with Syria in 2022. Another of Iran’s proxy terrorist groups, Hezbollah in Syria, also joined the attacks on Israel, firing rockets from the north into the country.
The international community hasn’t ignored Mr. Xi’s three meetings, Su Tze-yun, director of the Institute of Defense Strategy and Resources at Taiwan’s Institute of National Defense and Security, told The Epoch Times on Oct. 9.
“The international community is now more suspicious of whether the CCP indirectly provides the rockets used by Hamas through a third party such as Iran because German media once reported that Hamas rockets are made in China. Has China also provided Hamas with raw materials to make the rockets?” he said.
“China has a large arms production capacity in Iran, which has provided a large amount of military equipment to Russia. However, Iran’s own arms production capacity alone is actually far from enough for it. What role has [the CCP] actually played in this? It’s worth looking into.”
