As the situation in Gaza and Israeli diplomatic relations begin to heat up once again, more global players are beginning to weigh in on the situation in the Middle East. On Sept. 18, China hosted its yearly Xiangshan Security Forum, an event inviting multiple leaders from different nations to further the security connection between the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world. This three-day event is marked with different talks and conferences promoting cooperation and continued peace on the world stage, and it is a part of China’s way to establish itself as a world peace broker according to ModernDiplomacy.
During this event, however, tensions erupted between a Chinese representative and the Israeli representative. According to ModernDiplomacy, Yan Xuetong, dean of the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, erupted into an argument with Elad Shoshan, the Israeli military attaché to China.
The argument was over Israel’s killing of over 70,000 civilians and its lack of care over who it kills in its war against the terrorists. Yan even urged Israel to go to the United Nations and work with them and Palestine to create the two-state solution and to defeat the terrorists by working with the Palestinian government.
Shoshan argued that the Israeli government does not target civilians and is doing its best to avoid taking innocent lives. Yan dismissed this claim, likening it to bank robbers using hostages as human shields, saying “would you shoot customers and employees to free the hostages? Of course not.” The conversation seems to have ended there, as the embarrassed Israeli representative seemed to have ended it there.
This year the Xiangshan Security Forum was structured to address bullying and hegemony, pointing towards Israel and the United States and their recent actions on the global stage. Along with this, as a show of attempted unity and goodwill, the Chinese openly invited both Israeli and American delegations. Attempting to bridge the gap and further the aims of being a global peacemaker, China was clearly setting this event up as a stepping-stone towards global Sino relations. The interaction seems to have only made the situation worse, and with prime minister Netanyahu’s comments to the US delegation in Israel, it seems to only be beginning.
According to Ynet Global, to the 250 representatives from every state in the United States Netanyahu stated that “just as Iran once imposed a siege on us hoping it would wipe us out, which we broke through, today there’s an attempt to impose a new siege on Israel—led by Qatar, and also by countries like China. This is a media siege, funded with enormous money.” The Prime Minister of Israel here is linking China to Qatar, another known enemy of the Israeli state, establishing China as one in the same. Chinese relations with Israeli enemies are nothing new, as China has attempted to broker peace before in the region back in June as Israeli and Iranian attacks began to threaten stability. Now, Israel is the one who is provoking the international community as they are throwing threats towards one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Ynet Global claims that this backlash towards the Chinese is due to the same reasons Xiutong was throwing towards the Israeli diplomat, this being the Chinese attitude against Israel for its treatment of the Palestinian people along with the trend of positive Chinese relations between it and much of the Middle East.
Regardless of their reasoning, the tension brewing between the two is clear to have not reached its peak yet, and with the United States being so close to Israel, it will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.
