My Take | China and Israel are much closer than most people like to think
- At a time when the mainly Jewish state is losing the entire Global South, it will want a friendly Beijing and all its economic benefits on its side
The war on Gaza has created many conspiracy theories. One of my favourites is that Beijing was behind Hamas’ terrorist attacks. Seriously! And it’s not some wild theory floating exclusively online and being promoted by unhinged influencers. It’s in mass circulation newspapers.
Taipei Times, the English-language sister publication of Liberty Times, recently ran an op-ed titled, “China’s connection to Israel attacks”.
How? That’s because “China assists Iran” and “Iran provides substantial funding to Hamas”, according to the author. Ergo, Beijing may have a role in the terror attacks.
Here, at least the alleged support is indirect, and transitive, as in A supports B, B supports C, therefore A supports C.
Another op-ed, this one in the New York Post, a tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, is much more direct.
The author gets right to the point: “Pick any terrorist group, rogue regime or horrific conflict in the world today and you’ll likely find that China is behind it. Take Hamas for example.”