Why’d China Call For Paying Attention To Israel’s “Reasonable Security Concerns”?
The military-diplomatic dynamics of what can now be described as the regional Israeli-Resistance War have shifted against the latter so China risks losing influence if it doesn’t recalibrate its policy.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a press conference on Tuesday that “The legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people need to be realized and the reasonable security concerns of Israel need to be paid attention to.” She then repeated this in response to a Bloomberg reporter later asking whether he heard her comments about this correctly. The reason why they asked for confirmation is because this represents a shift in popular perceptions of China’s rhetoric.
Although Mao claimed that “It has been China’s consistent position”, her country’s media and officials have harshly criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza over the past year despite the security-related reasons behind it, which Beijing implied were unreasonable. This tacit approach enabled the People’s Republic to present itself as a champion for the Palestinian cause and thus win more support among the region’s Muslim-majority population.
Its calculations now appear to be changing after Israel’s devastating strikes against Hezbollah over the past month, that group’s deputy leader endorsing a ceasefire for the first time without preconditioning it on stopping the Gaza campaign, and reports about secret US-Arab talks with Iran on a regional ceasefire. The military-diplomatic dynamics of what can now be described as the regional Israeli-Resistance War have therefore shifted against the latter so China risks losing influence if it doesn’t recalibrate its policy.
Observers should remember that its previously harsh rhetoric was never followed up with any actions against Israel such as sanctions, and everything was always worded in such a way as to leave open the possibility of flexibly changing its approach if circumstances required, as is now arguably occurring. The same goes for Russia, whose media and officials have also harshly criticized Israel even though the Kremlin never sanctioned it or even symbolically designated it as an “unfriendly country”.
Both also previously spoke about the importance of ensuring Israel’s security, with an example from China here and Russia here, but such statements were overshadowed by their harsh criticisms till now. The military-diplomatic tables decisively turned over the past month, however, so they no longer want be associated as much with what’s increasingly being seen as the losing side since that could make it more difficult for them to be invited by Israel to any peace talks if they’re held in a multilateral format.
The only way to counter those perceptions is by loudly reaffirming the reasonableness of Israel’s security concerns. China and Russia each have some political ties with the Resistance even though Iran’s far surpasses theirs, and these groups might want them present in some capacity when negotiating peace with Israel, though Israel is unlikely to agree unless it’s convinced that they respect its interests. It’s now in a better position to dictate its terms, after all, so it can be selective about who attends such talks.
There’s also the possibility that Israel bilaterally negotiates with each of the Resistance groups that it’s fighting or relies on Arab-US mediation instead of replicating the Ukrainian format of multilateralizing the peace process, thus cutting China and Russia out of it entirely. Even in that case, however, their change of rhetoric – or rather, loud reaffirmation of overshadowed statements – would still be beneficial by aligning them closer with the winning side in order to better prepare for the post-war regional future.
Lycus
Changing one's position to the detriment of the camp that has just suffered bombings that have largely affected the civilian population, for example: for Nasrallah's skin, a neighborhood razed and probably 300 to 500 civilian deaths, that's called opportunism.
Showing moderation would have required having the current language upstream, but in the face of recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, severely condemn Israel.
I don't like China's changing of foot on all counts. It is an ally that Russia should be wary of.
The overwhelming majority including the UN supports a two-state solution. So does China. With that said, in consideration to both those nations of people whether they are called Palestine-Israel, common sense would have that both nations have their security concerns paid attention to.
The problem here is almost exactly like Ukraine. Both nations are proxies of "old money" and other elitist interests across the old world. Jewish and non-jewish and as such when they conduct foreign policy and the barrel of a gun, cause untold suffering and mayhem, then run for cover under their mommy's skirt (read: national interests). Zelensky built himself a fool proof framework that doesn't allow possibility of peace. It was designed and approved by the West and their homegrown nationalists. How does he have the audacity to claim he has a roadmap for peace? Furthermore how does it factor in the local populace who have suffered and are literally being kidnapped and shipped to the frontline.
Now let's go back to Israel. Israel is not in a war with Lebanon. It's not in a war with Yemen nor Syria or Iraq. And it certainly isn't in a war with Iran. That sets up a different political theatre altogether. So who is Israel allegedly delivering "devastating attacks" to; some (albeit very effective) militias scattered across many nations with the prominent four being Hezbollah, Answar-Allah, Hama's and Iraq PMCs. If you follow that region's events, you would realize that every other day, one of these militias is delivering a devastating bloody nose to Israel but because they don't gloat as loud or in cohoots with MSM, Israel gets to control the narrative.
I think that this is what China is alluding to. Israeli citizens also need to be recognized as being a security concern because of the violence they are being subjected to UNNECESSARILY. Only problem with those concerns is Bibi and Biden don't give a damn about them. If they had they would have nipped this in the bud. So just like Zelensky, the only ones in the way of peace and objective security concerns are the top people hellbent on death and destruction.