China focuses on student protests to paint US ’empire,’ deflect from domestic antisemitism

The Chinese state-run outlet China Daily published an editorial on April 24 about student protests across U.S. college campuses titled “US people know what is going on.” The editorial coincided with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s three-day visit to China. It attempted to argue that the demonstrations were a sign of bad intentions behind the U.S. policy toward Israel and the “disconnect” between U.S. elites and everyday Americans.

In addition to painting the U.S. as an opportunist, the China Daily piece attempted to equate the unpopular U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza to its policy on Ukraine. It further characterized the Biden administration as having a “nonchalant” response to the protests.

In fact, the White House has come under criticism from both ends of the U.S. political spectrum, with one side demanding a tougher response to claims of antisemitism and violence at the campuses, and the other insisting on more pronounced support for the protesters amid the student arrests across the country.

“There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked.”

Biden rejected calls to deploy the National Guard, saying university administrators and local police must ensure that “order prevails.”

In China, coverage of the U.S. student rallies paints the arrests as a government crackdown on freedom of expression. It likewise omits concerns over potential acts of antisemitism and destruction during the campus protests.

China Daily published an editorial in October 2023 declaring the U.S. was on “the wrong side of history with Gaza.”

China’s state propaganda agents have been promoting pro-Palestinian sentiment on tightly censored Chinese social media platforms and using images of student protests on campuses to undermine the U.S.

Images of police cracking down on student protesters are being boosted along with editorials from China state-sponsored media outlets calling the rallies a “rebellion” and drawing lines between “good” (pro-Palestinian) and “evil” (the U.S.).

As previously reported by VOA, Jun Zhengping Studio, a communication platform of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, published an opinion piece on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, stating: “Can blindly using violent means to suppress students be able to quell domestic dissatisfaction with the government?”

It added: “If American politicians really have a sense of democracy and human rights, they should stop supporting Israel, stop endorsing Israel’s actions, and do more things that are conducive to world peace. Otherwise, the only one who will suffer backlash is the United States itself.”

VOA also found that The People’s Daily posted a video on Monday saying that American students protested because they “can no longer stand the double standards of the United States.”

Similarly, CGTN has been producing videos on the protests with one released Wednesday titled “Expert: U.S. repression of student protests shows true colors of its politics.” The video included an American professor who equated the U.S. to an “empire” and insisted the “establishment never listens to protests nor reforms.”

Former editor-in-chief of the Global Times and special commentator Hu Xijin has regularly posted on X on the matter. Last week, Hu made a post showing images of police crackdowns on U.S. college campuses and mockingly asked “Is this Iran, or Haiti?”

Hu further posted how “young American people have changed so profoundly,” a false claim that ignores the history of college protests in the U.S. spanning back to the Vietnam War.

China is once again attempting to appear as an ally to the protesters while painting the U.S. as hypocritical and not a proponent of human rights, despite its own challenges at home with its treatment of the Uyghur population or the people of Hong Kong.

Another part of controlling the narrative has been Chinese media attempts to promote pro-Palestine and anti-Israel sentiment while simultaneously allowing antisemitic remarks to rise on traditional and social media platforms.

The New York Times found a widely viewed post by a Weibo influencer with 2.9 million followers saying he would opt to call Hamas a “resistance organization” and instead call Israel a “terror organization.”

As documented by VOA, Chinese state news outlets have been pushing conspiracy theories about Jewish “power” and “wealth” on Chinese social media. For instance, a Chinese state broadcaster hosted a discussion page on Weibo falsely claiming that Jewish people controlled a “disproportionate amount” of U.S. wealth. The page resulted in responses riddled with antisemitic stereotypes and even comments downplaying the Holocaust, according to the Times.

China denies Western media reports about the increase in state-backed antisemitism in the country. Pro-China influencer Andy Boreham responded to a CNN report using classic disinformation tactics: distortion and deflection. In a video commentary, Boreham misquoted CNN as saying: “Chinese people have too much freedom of speech.” Then he attempted to deflect to the issue to the “hate of Asians in the U.S.”