Since Hamas indiscriminately attacked Israeli civilians last weekend, Chinese authorities have refrained from condemning its actions or even from mentioning the terrorist group by name.
Indeed, as Niklas ”@KluddNiklas” Eriksson depicts in his latest cartoon for Kinamedia, Beijing doesn’t even classify Hamas as a terrorist organisation but as a ”resistance movement”.
As several commentators already pointed out, Beijing has a history of supporting and even arming the PLO and other groups fighting for a Palestinian state to replace the state of Israel. Given today’s rivalry with the USA, supporting Palestine on the expense with Israel is also method for China to win friends in the Arab world and beyond.
As an aside, two thirds of China’s oil import comes from Muslim countries in the Middle East, giving it an economic stake in a regional that naturally translates into geopolitics.
Whatever the reson, the methods of Hamas is clearly embraced by Chinese authorities, who don’t hesitate to call out Israel’s name in the open by condemning the counterattacks of the Jewish state into Gaza.
Perhaps going after civilians is just a practice that the Chinese Communist Party is all too familiar with itself to condemn at face value?
The above cartoon can be viewed in full size here.
A full collection of KluddNiklas’ works for Kinamedia can be seen via this link.
