China has condemned the United States’ and Israel’s joint military offensive in Iran and has called for an immediate ceasefire. As the largest buyer of Iranian oil, China provides Iran with critical economic support.

At the same time, China seeks to maintain a stable relationship with Israel.

In the past few years, however, antisemitic tropes have creeped into Chinese state media and on social media platforms, upending China’s benevolent image among Jews. Until now, China was one of the very few countries without a history of indigenous antisemitism.

Much of the anti-Jewish animus comes from nationalist intellectuals and online opinion leaders, says Meng Yang, a Chinese academic. An assistant professor at Peking University in Beijing, she teaches China’s first and only university-level Yiddish course and delivers lectures on Jewish civilization, the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism.

Yang told the Jewish News of Northern California recently that antisemitism is not necessarily generated by the state. “Some say that antisemitism in China must come from the government. But from my teaching experience and student feedback, I see that much of the hostility actually comes from nationalist intellectuals and online opinion leaders.”

“Conspiracy theories about Jews, including versions of blood libel, circulate widely,” she added. “Because China has a very small Jewish population and because Judaism is not among the five officially recognized religions in China, most people’s perceptions come from the internet rather than personal contact. That makes misinformation harder to counter.”

According to a thoroughly-researched and sober report written by Shalom Salomon Wald for The Jewish People Policy Institute, antisemitism in China has developed without “a historical background of Jewish persecution and without a significant Jewish presence in the country — a fact that makes the phenomenon particularly unique and troubling.”

This trend is driven by several strategic geopolitical shifts: China’s escalating rivalry with the United States, where Jews are perceived as playing a leading role in the economy, media and politics. China’s growing alignment with Arab and Muslim-majority nations such as Iran, Israel’s deadliest enemy. The pull of global antisemitism, which has grown significantly since Hamas’ one day invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

In fact, the first antisemitic wave that washed over China’s social and official media landscape occurred during the 2021 Gaza war. It was authorized, if not initiated, by the Chinese government and based on anti-Jewish tropes conflating Israel, Jews, and Judaism, the report........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)