After Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli bombing of Gaza, Jen Tao took to Chinese social media platform Weibo to express condolences for the thousands of deaths on both sides of the conflict.
“I thought I would find some kind words for the victims, but instead I was shocked to see a lot of hateful things published about Muslims and Jews,” the 38-year-old surgeon told Al Jazeera. years in a Shanghai hospital.
Tao was particularly dismayed when a video of a Chinese Israeli woman being taken away on a motorcycle by Hamas appeared on Chinese social media.
In the comments section, one user wrote: “I don’t want to pay attention to her! »
Another accused the woman of being a “Nazi monster” for serving in the Israeli army (most Israeli citizens must complete military service).
“She is Chinese, but even she received such comments,” Tao said.
The broader debate over the conflict has also been marked by hate speech.
One online comment read: “Palestine has no civilians. There are only small terrorists, old terrorists, female and male terrorists, all of whom must be eliminated.”
Another called for the killing of Arabs to end terrorism, while a third said Muslims were terrorists who must be bombed to achieve peace.
Anti-Semitic comments, however, are more predominant.
“It’s really Little Mustache (Hitler)’s fault,” wrote one user. “If he had burned them all (the Jews), we wouldn’t have so many problems.”
“In European wars you will see the shadow of Jews making money, like vultures,” wrote another.
When asked to comment on anti-Semitic comments on Chinese social media, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said this week that “Chinese laws unequivocally prohibit the dissemination of information about ‘extremism, ethnic hatred, discrimination and violence via the Internet’.
But Tao doesn’t see such laws being enforced.
And by allowing hatred to flourish, she believes Chinese leaders are undermining their own diplomatic strategy in the month-long war between Israel and Gaza.
Chinese leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire and, in the long term, the achievement of peaceful coexistence between Palestine and Israel.
“When we tolerate hatred at home, how can we call for peace internationally?
A distant conflict
Hongda Fan is a professor at the Institute of Middle East Studies at Shanghai International Studies University.
“There are different opinions on the current conflict between Israel and Gaza in the Chinese public sphere,” he said in an email to Al Jazeera.
But at the same time, the vast majority of Chinese people do not know the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, according to Fan.
“They are not very aware of the political divisions within Palestine and the differences in governance between Gaza and the West Bank. »
Hsia Liang Hou, 42, a cybersecurity specialist from Chengdu in central China, also believes there are many elements of the conflict that are not widely understood in China.
“Chinese people generally don’t know much about the conflict and its long history because it doesn’t affect China much,” he said.
Hsia believes that a general lack of understanding of the conflict and its history explains some of the racist comments that have circulated on the Chinese internet.
“It’s not because all Chinese are racist towards Arabs and Jews,” he said.
Although Tao was dismayed by some content on social media, she also cautions against using online comments to draw conclusions about Chinese people’s general sentiment regarding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
“Many people don’t express their opinions on social media, and the government continuously blocks and censors all kinds of things on the (Chinese) internet,” she said.
“You can’t see everything; you see what is acceptable to the government.
Israel-Palestine uncensored
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are not limited to the Chinese internet, but unlike most other countries in the world, online content is strictly monitored and censored in China. For nine years in a row, China has been ranked as having the worst environment in the world for internet freedom.
A recent example of state interference online is the sudden death of former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. After Li’s death on October 27, authorities issued instructions on handling media content related to the former premier.
Subsequently, online discussions about Li were censored and quotes associated with him were removed from online forums.
The deaths of Chinese political leaders have led to political upheaval in the past and are therefore considered sensitive by authorities.
“The authorities censor content online that they consider a threat to their power,” said Hsia, a cybersecurity specialist.
Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic content does not pose a threat to the Chinese government, and in some ways anti-Semitic content uses the same arguments as the Chinese state — but in more racist terms, according to William Figueroa: assistant professor at the University of Groningen, who conducted research on China’s relations with Middle Eastern countries.
While the Chinese government summit has called for peace and coexistence, Chinese media and influential figures have been far more conspiratorial and antagonistic in their rhetoric toward Israel and the Jewish people in general.
A post on the government-controlled social media account CCTV falsely claimed that 3 percent of Jews in the United States control 70 percent of American wealth. The topic was one of the most trending on the short messaging service Weibo.
Meanwhile, Shen Yi, a prominent professor of international relations at Fudan University, compared Israeli attacks on Gaza to acts of aggression carried out by the Nazis, while Hu Xijin, a prominent commentator and former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times newspaper, expressed concern that Israel was erasing “Earth from the solar system.”
According to Lin Pu, an expert on digital authoritarianism and Chinese influence at Tulane University in the United States, Chinese authorities refrain from censoring certain anti-Semitic comments because they do not disrupt the message of sympathy and of support from the Chinese government towards Palestine.
“The anti-Israel sentiment highlights an aspect of the Chinese position on this issue that the Chinese government does not want to express explicitly for diplomatic reasons,” he said.
More broadly, censoring offensive and racist comments is generally not a priority for the Chinese state, according to Figueroa.
“You can find all kinds of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic sentiments on Chinese social media at any time of the week,” he said.
The only way Figueroa could see that the Chinese government might be concerned about such content would be if Western countries used it to portray China in a negative light.
“But it hasn’t been a major problem so far.”
Tao believes that Beijing should remain true to its call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
“It starts with ending racism and hatred in the media and online here in China,” she said.
“If the government is going to use its censorship powers, it should use it in this area. »