The Beijing - Hezbollah Connection August 8, 2006
My rav told me that the current Israel - Hezbollah conflict “is bigger than it seems”. How right he was.
Blogger Andre Pachter, on his blog ChinaConfidential adds yet another facet to the ever-complexifying web of events in Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon.
The mastermind behind the coordinated Arab demand for an immediate Israeli troop withdrawal from Lebanon is China’s special envoy to the Middle East, Sun Bigan, who is currently visiting the region.
Sun, who is a veteran diplomat and one of China’s leading Arabists, called Monday for an immediate unconditional ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Lebanese proxy army of Beijing’s non-Arab Islamist ally, Iran.
“Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah should end hostilities immediately to avoid further deterioration of humanitarian crisis in Lebanon,” Sun told a press conference in Damascus following a closed-door meeting with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara.
Sun is advancing the argument that the United States has lost credibility and influence in the region as a result of its steadfast support for Israel, and that a more neutral power–such as China– is urgently needed to help end the fighting and reduce regional tensions. The real objective is to weaken the U.S. position–and ultimately drive the US from the region altogether.
Toward this end, China has been a major arms supplier to Hezbollah’s sponsor. In the context of energy deals, Beijing has sold Iran tanks, planes, artillery, and cruise, anti-tank, surface-to-surface and anti-aircraft missiles. Chinese-designed missiles–including some that have been upgraded and improved by North Korea–have found their way into Hezbollah’s arsenal of aerial terror.
If you want to know what China feels about the conflict, just look at Syria. After all, as the Syrian News Agency itself reported:
Chinese Special Envoy to the Middle East Sun Bigan on Monday described his talks with Vice- President Farouk al-Shara as very successful. “Viewpoints regarding the deteriorating situation in the region as a result of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon were identical,” Bigan said in a press conference held at the Chinese Embassy in Damascus.
So the weapons that end up destorying homes in Haifa, start off in a factory in Szechuan or Guangdong somewhere? And we all know that Syria is a main stop off point for these weapons on their way from Iran.
It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.
YLove, I I’ve just come across you, your music, your background, and this website. It’s all very intriguing. My good friend’s cousin produces some of Moshav’s music, and I see you’re slated to play with them at Irving Plaza on September 14. I’ll certainly be there and look forward to hearing more of your eclectic original style. I love hip hop, and you’ve done great things with it from what i can see.
Regarding this post though, I was surprised by the clip of news from the Syrian news agency. In a recent issue of The National Interest, a foreign policy journal, Geoffrey Kemp, in an article titled “The East Moves West”, writes that “…China began to modernize its armed forces and, denied access to Western military technology, turned to Israel for military cooperation. Israel remains one of China’s most important arms suppliers, especially of high-technology items. This has become a very controversial issue in the United States, especially in the Department of Defense, which is responsible for contingency plans for the defense of Taiwan.”
Needless to say, I was quite taken back by your post and the blogger’s critique you quoted. I’m not really sure what to make of these conflicting assertions.
It’s important to recognize though that in the 1970’s and 1980’s, China adopted a pragmatic approach that led it to become a major arms supplier to both Iran and Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. “Most dramatic was China’s surprise sale of medium-range strategic missiles to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s (which was motivated, on the Saudi side, by the U.S. refusal, because of Israeli objections, to provide fuel tanks for Saudi F-15s). In parallel, China began to modernize its armed forces and, denied access to Western military technology, turned to Israel for military cooperation….”
It seems likely that China is just playing all angles, and not siding with anyone in this conflict. They certainly would not want to anger the US, their most important ally, Israel, the region’s superpower, or the Arab countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, whom they depend heavily on for their growing energy needs.
Maybe it’s not as conspiratorial as one might think.
Thoughts?