China’s Hypocrisy on Display at the United Nations

“The religious holy sites in Jerusalem bear on the religious sentiment of the followers,” China’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, declared at the UN Security Council’s briefing on the “Situation in the Middle East, Including the Palestinian Question” on August 21^st. “We must take a clear stand against irresponsible provocation and incitement, earnestly respect the historical status quo of the religious holy sites, and respect Jordan's custodianship over the holy sites.” He also condemned what he called the “barbaric expansion of settlements.”

Israel is a pluralistic democracy that respects freedom of religion

China’s one-sided pro-Palestinian stance is nothing new. Yet the Chinese Communist regime’s shameless pretension that it is concerned about protecting religious holy sites in Jerusalem while destroying the religious holy sites of minorities in its own country is the height of hypocrisy.

According to an article in Contending Modernities, published by the University of Notre Dame:

“Over the past few years, government authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China have destroyed large swathes of the religious heritage of the Turkic Muslim Uyghurs. This campaign of demolition has proceeded in tandem with the heavy securitization of the region, mass incarcerations, and attacks on the Uyghur language and other aspects of their cultural identity… Rather than targeting the small number of people who might reasonably be judged vulnerable to radicalization and violent action, the anti-religious extremism campaign in Xinjiang targeted all expressions of Islamic faith, and it removed swathes of Islamic architecture from Uyghur towns. Beginning in 2015, and greatly accelerating in 2017, the Xinjiang authorities demolished thousands of mosques under a ‘mosque rectification’ campaign.”

Palestinian leaders’ rejection of Israel's existence as a Jewish state

Israel is a pluralistic democracy that respects freedom of religion. That is far more than can be said for Jordan when it occupied Jerusalem’s Old City between 1948 and 1967 and desecrated Jewish holy sites. It is also far more than can be said for China’s Communist regime which, while purporting to be so concerned about protecting Muslim places of worship in Jerusalem, is wantonly destroying Muslim places of worship in its own country.

Ambassador Zhang Jun also told the Security Council that “the fundamental solution to the Palestinian question lies in the establishment of an independent state of Palestine with full sovereignty based on the 1967 border with East Jerusalem as its capital.” This is also the position of the United Nations. But neither China nor the United Nations have any legitimate say in this matter. East Jerusalem contains Judaism’s holiest site – the Western Wall. Given what happened to Jewish religious sites during Jordan’s occupation, Palestinian leaders’ rejection of Israel's existence as a Jewish state, and continuing Palestinian terrorist attacks, returning to the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent state of Palestine is a non-starter.

Finally, as to Ambassador Zhang Jun’s “call on the international community to pay attention to and support the needs of the Palestinian economy and the people's livelihood, provide humanitarian assistance, and help Palestinian (sic) alleviate its financial crisis,” China contributed this year a measly $1 million to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency).

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China’s ambassador neglected to mention how little China had actually contributed to UNRWA

In his remarks to the Security Council, China’s ambassador boasted that “China signed an agreement with UNRWA to make an annual contribution to the agency.” However, he neglected to mention how little China had actually contributed. That is most likely because the $1 million contribution from the country with the world’s second biggest economy is dwarfed by the United States’ funding to UNRWA this year, which exceeds $200 million.

Admittedly, UNRWA is a corrupt, inefficient organization that has perpetuated millions of Palestinians’ so-called refugee status for too long. It does not deserve a penny of American taxpayers’ money. Nevertheless, the Biden administration decided to resume large financial contributions that the Trump administration had suspended.

At least, the Chinese regime puts China first when it comes to where it puts its money as opposed to the Biden administration’s habit of putting America last. However, China’s UN ambassador has no business condemning Israel regarding protection of holy sites in Jerusalem, which Israel already does, while China’s record is so atrocious. Nor does China’s UN ambassador have any business calling on the international community to “help Palestinian alleviate its financial crisis,” which is mostly self-inflicted.

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