Beijing has long lent its support to Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’ — the terrorist groups that have attacked Israel, cargo ships, and U.S. bases in the region.
A Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlet deleted a post that described Iran’s unprecedented attack directly targeting Israel as a “successful” operation — but probably not because Beijing has any regrets about aligning itself with Iranian aggression.
On Saturday evening, the X account for the Global Times, which is one of Beijing’s English-language propaganda organs, posted about the Iranian attack. Earlier that evening, reports indicated that Iran had launched a swarm of Shahed attack drones that were primed to reach Israeli targets within hours.
In the since-deleted post, the Global Times said that Iran had no choice but to launch the attack. “Due to the intl organizations, failure, especially the UNSC, to condemn #Israel ‘s attacks on Iranian diplomatic facilities, #Iran retaliated with strategic intelligence, missiles and drones, successfully destroying key military targets in Israel,” the post stated.
The post was taken down sometime after Saturday evening. It was probably not deleted on account of a change of heart by Chinese officials, though. Beijing has long lent its support to Iran’s “axis of resistance” — the alignment of Tehran-backed terrorist groups that have attacked Israel, cargo vessels, and U.S. bases in the region.
During the International Court of Justice’s hearings on the conflict in Gaza, a Chinese official told the international panel that Palestinians have the right to engage in “armed struggle” against Israel.
And earlier today, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said his country backs Iran’s position. The Chinese summary of a call between Wang and Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian today says that Wang “noted Iran’s statement that its action taken was limited and was an act of self-defense in response to the attack against the Iranian consulate in Syria.” Wang also expressed confidence that “Iran can handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil while safeguarding its own sovereignty and dignity.”
It’s more likely that the Global Times spiked its post because it prematurely, and embarrassingly, cast the attack as successful. In fact, the day after the attack, the Israel Defense Forces said 99 percent of the drones and missiles that Iran launched had been intercepted, with some missiles getting through and causing “minor damage” to Israel’s Nevatim air force base. U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that about half of the 115 to 130 Iranian ballistic missiles crashed or failed to launch. Tellingly, the portion of the Global Times post leaning heavily in to Iran’s framing of events — and its characterization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility in Damascus as a diplomatic building — does not appear to have been the problem with the post.
While it’s embarrassing that Beijing voiced its support for an operation that Israel and its allies successfully defended against, what’s even more significant is its increasingly vocal diplomatic support of the Iranian axis.