Asia Times — China has no interest in saving relations with Israel

Second, recent developments prove that China is not as impartial as it claims. Despite the atrocities Hamas committed against civilians on October 7 last year, China has danced around condemning Hamas, let alone recognizing Hamas as a terrorist organization.

To this day, China has refrained from singling out Hamas for criticism. Comments such as “China strongly condemns acts of violence against civilians” criticize not only Hamas but also Israel for inflicting collateral damage on civilians in Gaza.

Given that Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, is not exactly welcomed with open arms by Arab countries. China’s reluctance to single out Hamas for criticism is puzzling.

It could mean one of two things: China is unwilling to draw the ire of Arab countries and will leave nothing up to chance, or China is not aware that Hamas is unpopular not only in the Arab world but also in Gaza, where they ruled before the war.

Whatever the reason, at the end of the day, China’s silence following the October 7 attack has irked Israel to no end, causing Sino-Israeli relations to plummet to what some see as an all-time low.

It does not appear that China is deliberately trying to anger Israel, as it has mainly followed the usual script, calling for all sides to exercise restraint and an end to the violence and resumption of talks based on the two-state solution. This suggests that China believes it is performing an astute balancing act.

However, when China began directly calling out Israel for overacting in Gaza, while staying mum about the brutality Hamas has committed, never mentioning Hamas by name in connection to the crime, it became clear that China is no longer neutral.