Israel has shut down its consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu, signalling further strain in relations between Jerusalem and Beijing as China deepens its engagement with Iran and Arab countries and adopts a broader West Asia policy.

The closure comes amid growing differences between Israel and China over Beijing’s position on the Gaza war and its expanding ties with countries across West Asia.

“Although the consulate general is closing, the bridges of friendship, mutual respect and shared memories we built over the last five years will endure,” PTI quoted Harpaz as saying.

Israel still maintains diplomatic missions in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, along with its embassy in Beijing.

    • manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml
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      14 hours ago

      For your consideration a snippted from a recent article on The Monthly Review

      Of Mosques and Men

      Early into the campaign against China, scholars such as Zenz began to accuse the government not of genocide per se, but of “cultural genocide”—namely, the crime of erasing the cultural world of a people.40 Two accusations should be taken seriously: first, that there is a population decline amongst the Uyghurs and second, that there is an attack on mosques in China. According to the 2020 Chinese national census, the Uyghur population in Xinjiang grew from 10 million to 11.6 million, an increase of 1.6 million over the past decade. The data offered in the census show that the Uyghur population grew at 1.67 percent per year from 2000 to 2020, a growth rate double that of other ethnic minorities in China.41 With the poverty eradication program in full swing, it should be expected that this growth rate will not be maintained as families with higher incomes often choose not to have many children, and so it will be likely that the growth rate will decline. This is a normal process in human history known as the demographic transition. By 2020, poverty rates had fallen sharply in XUAR, Uyghur life expectancy has increased, and overall data on education and health has improved modestly but certainly improved. On the issue of attacks on mosques, there is very interesting data. According to the last official Chinese government source (the State Council white paper of 2016), there are 24,800 venues for religious activities in Xinjiang (and out of those, 24,400 mosques); this compares to fewer than 2,000 mosques in the 1980s. Leibold’s Strategic Policy Institute released a report in 2020 saying that 16,000 mosques had been damaged or destroyed, with only 15,500 still standing. This report was based largely on analysis of satellite imagery. Since the Australian report is largely without details, it is difficult to go mosque by mosque to verify its claims.

      However, there is another interesting demographic detail that should be considered. There are 813,000 Muslims in Australia, and there are around 600 mosques in the country, which means that there is a mosque for 1,355 Australian Muslims.42 The Muslim population in XUAR is roughly 13 million (11.6 million Uyghurs), and, using 2020 data, with 24,400 mosques. This means that there is a mosque for every 533 Muslims, and, with the alleged reduction to 15,500, there is a mosque for every 839 Muslims.43 In both cases, the density of mosques in China’s XUAR is greater than in Australia, and in Australia there have been a spate of attacks against mosques, as well as campaigns to prevent mosques being opened (the most famous being the Bendigo and Ballarat mosques in the state of Victoria). No report about these atrocities came from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In the United States, in constrast, attacks against mosques and prevention of the building of mosques have become normal, with elected officials on the record with statements against Muslims and particularly against Islam in the United States. No report about these atrocities has come from the Jamestown Foundation

      https://monthlyreview.org/articles/the-idea-of-the-uyghur-genocide-and-the-realities-of-xinjiang/

    • Flyberius [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      16 hours ago

      How do they treat Muslims? I seem to recall Islam being pretty celebrated when I travelled China last year. Xi’an and Xinjiang were full of mosques. I visited them, and was present during call to prayer in the one on xi’an. The best food in China comes with a healthy islamic influence, with loads of emphasis on beef.

      Have you been to China? Have you visited any of the provinces with large muslin populations? Do you know anything about what you are talking about?

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      21 hours ago

      Previously:

      The US tried to foment division in China by funding and organizing Salafi terrorist into Xinjiang, and once its efforts failed, it made lemonade out of its lemon by concocting and promoting a genocide narrative.

      The only countries pushing this narrative are the “always the same mapimperial core countries, which just so happen to be largely the same ones supporting Israel’s genocide.

      Almost no predominantly-Muslim country buys the Uyghur genocide narrative, because they know it’s bullshit, because they talked to the Uyghurs themselves.
      https://twitter.com/un_hrc/status/1578003299827171330 #HRC51 | Draft resolution A/HRC/51/L.6 on holding a debate on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of #China, was REJECTED.

      Previously:

      Genocide is more than just killing, it’s the deliberate destruction of a people including its culture and institutions.

      (a) Show me the Uyghur bodies

      (b) Show me the serious bodily or mental harm

      (c) Show me the conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part

      (d) Show me the measures intended to prevent births within the group

      In accordance with China’s affirmative action policies towards ethnic minorities, all non-Han ethnic groups were subject to different laws and were usually allowed to have two children in urban areas, and three or four in rural areas.

      (e) Show me the forcible transfer of children from one group to another group

      violent incidents in East Turkestan

      I wonder where those Salafi terrorists came from? Oh right: the US, UK, and Israel organized, funded, and trained them, as they did Al Qaeda and the various flavors of ISIS/ISIL, including the “moderate rebels” that just took over Syria. The blueprint of regime change operations How regime change happens in the 21st century with your consent.

    • ghost_laptop@lemmy.ml
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      24 hours ago

      i guess believing in bullshit propaganda made by a cia contractor is more important to you. adrian senz is literally a fascist. whats happening in gaza is genocide, not what happened in xinjiang. stop spreading nazi propaganda please.