The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday in response to the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah confirming the death of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in which it declared that Beijing “opposes and condemns any action against innocent civilians.”
The Foreign Ministry specified in the title of the statement that it was a direct response to “the killing of the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah,” not to any other military activity in the Middle East.
Nasrallah, Hezbollah confirmed on Saturday, died on Friday after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched airstrikes targeting Hezbollah’s massive national headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon. Nasrallah had run the Iran-backed terrorist organization for over 30 years and was responsible for organizing and approving terrorist attacks responsible for an untold number of deaths, including the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Hezbollah has historically targeted American outposts in the Middle East and helped train terrorists who targeted Americans during the Iraq War.
The IDF targeted the Hezbollah compound in Beirut, Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah’s ongoing attacks on northern Israel in support of Hamas, a Sunni jihadist terrorist organization also backed by Iran. The attacks had displaced an estimated 60,500 civilians in northern Israel and essentially made it impossible for Israel to govern that territory. The IDF airstrikes preceded a mysterious string of explosions in which hundreds of pagers, walkie-talkies, and other electronics spontaneously exploded, killing dozens, many of them high-ranking Hezbollah terrorists. Many of the electronics implicated, apparently planted with explosives, were owned by Hezbollah terrorists, indicating a targeted attack. Israel has not taken responsibility for the blasts at press time, however, nor has any other individual or entity.
“China is closely following the incident and is deeply concerned over the escalation of tensions in the region,” the Foreign Ministry declared in response to Nasrallah’s death. “China opposes the infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and security, opposes and condemns any action against innocent civilians, and opposes any move that fuels antagonism and escalates regional tensions.”
Beijing demanded that “parties concerned, especially Israel … immediately take actions to cool down” and that Israel end its war on Hamas in its territory of Gaza.
The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times responded to the Nasrallah killing on Sunday by condemning the United States for its “indulgence” of Israel in publicly acknowledging Nasrallah’s status as a top-level terrorist and mass murderer.
“Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror,” outgoing American President Joe Biden said in a statement following the confirmation of his death. “His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians.”
The Chinese newspaper condemned Biden’s statement and America’s longstanding alliance with Israel as “at odds with the mainstream sentiments of the international community,” citing its usual group of Communist Party-approved “experts.”
“It is precisely the US’ indulgence that has led to the ongoing escalation of the situation in the Middle East today, analysts said,” the Times claimed. “The US plays a key role that allows, tolerates, or even instigates the escalation of this crisis, experts noted.”
One “expert” said that the current conflict between Israel and Iran’s proxy terrorist arms was due to America’s “unreasonable and selfish” support for Israel. The Global Times notably omitted mention of the event that prompted the conflict: the October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians, abduction of over 200 more, and widespread acts of gang rape, infanticide, and other atrocities committed by Hamas.
China has not historically played a meaningful diplomatic role in the Middle East, instead forging ties through commerce. After October 7, however, the Communist Party has attempted to elevate its relevance in the region through support for Hamas, hosting summits intended to normalize relations between the terrorists of Hamas and hesitant Muslim partners. China has also expanded its relationship with Iran, facilitating Iran joining the anti-American BRICS coalition and vocally opposing sanctions on the rogue regime.
Hezbollah is not known to have direct meaningful ties to Beijing, though Hassan Nasrallah on occasion expressed interest in having them. In 2006, evidence surfaced that Hezbollah used Chinese weapons in terrorist attacks, apparently obtained through Iran. Much more recently, in 2020, Nasrallah gave a speech in which he pressured Iran to allow China to expand its economic influence in the country.
“Chinese companies are ready to bring in money, and without any of the complications that we talk about in Lebanon. We don’t have to give them money, they will bring money into the country,” Nasrallah claimed.
Elsewhere in that speech, Nasrallah declared that his group would engage in terrorist violence to challenge the impact of sanctions on Hezbollah for its wanton human rights abuses: “Whoever is going to make us choose between being killed by weapons or being killed by starvation, I tell them: We will continue to carry our weapons and we won’t starve; and we will kill you.”
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