The Chinese state-run propaganda outlet Global Times published a commentary on Tuesday urging the United States to cede to the demands of Yemen’s Houthi terrorist organization – which include pressuring Israel to allow fellow jihadists Hamas to thrive in Gaza – as a way of stopping Houthi attacks on international shipping.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed Shiite jihadist terror organization, announced a war against Israel in late October in support of Hamas, a Sunni organization that also enjoys financial support from the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism, Iran. Hamas orchestrated an unprecedented terrorist assault on Israel on October 7 that resulted in 1,200 deaths and an estimated 250 abductions and featured a wide range of atrocities against civilians, including the murder and torture of children, gang rape, and desecration of corpses. The Houthis extended their full support to the atrocities and, in December, announced that in solidarity with Hamas they would begin attacking commercial ships attempting to access the Red Sea.
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The Houthis formally refer to themselves as “Ansar Allah” and took over Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, in 2014, forcing the legitimate government to move south to the port city of Aden. The two powers remain in a state of civil war. Houthi leaders claim, falsely, to be the legitimate government of Yemen and Iranian state propaganda outlets indulge this claim.
While Houthi leaders insist that they will only target Israeli and Israeli-bound ships, multiple targets of Houthi attacks have been ships whose operators claimed no ties to the country. As a result, at least 12 major international shipping companies – including BP, Maersk, and Evergreen – announced they would divert ships away from the Red Sea and towards the longer and more expensive route around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. About 12 percent of international shipping normally passes through the Red Sea.
Houthi leaders threatened to turn the entire Red Sea into a “graveyard” on Monday and said they would only end their piracy if “crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicines and fuel are allowed to reach its besieged population.” The “crimes in Gaza” they referred to are self-defense operations by the Israeli military intended to dismantle Hamas and prevent a second October 7-style attack. Contrary to the implication in the Houthi statement, Israel is allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and expanding access as it moves its operations deeper into Hamas territory. According to the White House, 200 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday.
Despite the inaccuracies in the Houthi demands, the Global Times, which serves as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government, insisted that the solution to ending Houthi disruptions to shipping is to surrender to them. The propaganda outlet condemned Washington for organizing a coalition of nations to offer naval support for ships in the region, claiming military deterrence was a poor response to missile and drone attacks on civilian ships.
The administration of President Joe Biden announced the coalition, dubbed “Operation Prosperity Guardian,” on Monday. The Houthi terrorist group has in large part managed to amass sufficient resources to threaten international trade as a result of Biden removing it from America’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in February 2021, greatly expanding its ability to operate financially.
“If Washington and its allies want to solve the Red Sea problem, they should play a responsible role in the UN Security Council to pass a cease-fire resolution and to put concrete efforts into improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the Global Times claimed, “which would be more effective than sending warships to conduct joint patrols.”
“Chinese analysts pointed out that the root cause of the trade route problem is the ongoing conflict in Gaza, and only a sustainable cease-fire and allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza via land and sea routes can solve the problem in the Red Sea,” it continued.
The Beijing outlet boasted that China has little to worry about regarding Houthi attacks on its ships as it has been vocally supportive of Hamas and critical of Israel’s self-defense operations. It also appeared to reveal that China is nonetheless maintaining a naval fleet in the area – similar to the U.S.-led coalition the Global Times condemned – but claimed that the naval support was not intended to protect from the Houthis.
“Although China has naval vessels in the region, their mission is about anti-piracy, rather than intervening in regional issues and other countries’ internal affairs,” a Chinese regime-approved “expert,” academic Ma Xiaolin, was quoted as saying. “Only a solution to the ongoing crisis in Gaza can effectively solve the problem in the Red Sea.”
Another pro-regime commentator, “military expert” Song Zhongping, confidently stated that China “doesn’t need to be too worried” about the Houthis, though it will keep warships in the Middle East.
China maintains a permanent military base in Djibouti, an African country on the other side of the Red Sea from Yemen.
The Chinese Communist Party’s clear interest in the Middle East, from protecting its military base to its prodigious shipping volume into Europe, did not stop the Chinese Foreign Ministry from claiming that Beijing’s calls to appease Hamas and the Houthis were not “selfish.”
“I want to stress that China does not have selfish interests in the Middle East and does not seek to form exclusive blocs in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday. “China always supports the people in Middle East countries in keeping the region’s future in their own hands. China stands ready to work with Arab-Islamic countries to firmly support the Palestinian people’s just cause of restoring their lawful national rights.”
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