“Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the quantity and virulence of antisemitic content on China’s tightly controlled internet—especially on its social media—has skyrocketed,” observes Josh Rogin (“Fueling online antisemitism is China’s new tool against the West,” Washington Post, January 8, 2024).
This unprecedented surge in antisemitism online in China could only be possible with the blessing of the Chinese government, which appears to be using anti-Jewish hate as a tool of its anti-U.S. and anti-Western diplomacy….
There’s a parallel rise on China’s internet of pro-Hamas and anti-Israel content. The Chinese tech companies, which operate under strict instructions from Chinese government censors, have played a big role. Chinese internet search giants Baidu and Alibaba went so far as to actually temporarily erase the country of Israel from their maps….
Some of this grows out of what has been Beijing’s largely pro-Palestinian position since the Israel-Gaza war broke out. Beijing has long relationships with Palestinian groups and sees the Palestinian issue in the context of its overall anti-Western, anti-imperialist world view. But China never had a long history of antisemitism and targeting of Jews as state policy, as Russia has.
According to congressional testimony last month by a former State Department official, Miles Yu, “Right now, it is very dangerous to be pro-Israel inside China…. The reason why China chose this moment to take a decisively anti-Israel position is because China regards Israel as a close ally of the West.”
Rogin advises the State Department to publish a report on China’s use of antisemitism as a propagandistic tool in the same way it has done for Russia.
He also says that “leaders in Beijing should be told clearly that its policy of fueling antisemitism is not only harmful to Jews, but a dangerous manipulation of its own people.” They can be told, but this kind of advice is going to go over like a lead balloon in CCP headquarters. Dangerous manipulation of its own people and other peoples is the CCP’s stock in trade, what it has been doing all day long, day after day, year after year, for many decades.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “China Is Stoking a New Cold War With the West”
Steven Mosher: “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.”
