China's foreign minister told Israel to stop settling the West Bank by force — a lecture on land rights from a regime that crushed Hong Kong's autonomy, occupies Tibet, and runs internment camps for Uyghurs. The stake for Americans is simple: Beijing is positioning itself as the Middle East's mediator, and every step it takes toward that role comes at the expense of U.S. leverage and taxpayer commitments that should never have existed in the first place.
Wang Yi delivered the remarks Thursday during a face-to-face meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the sidelines of a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. According to China's state-run Xinhua news agency, Wang told Herzog that Israel must "halt and reverse the forced establishment" of settlements in the West Bank and called the "Palestinian question" the "greatest historical injustice of this century." Wang said the two-state solution is "the right way to resolve the question" and that reopening full humanitarian access to Gaza was the "immediate priority."
Herzog's response was diplomatically cordial but firm. According to Breitbart, Herzog acknowledged China as an "important constructive force in promoting peace" and said Israel takes Beijing's proposals seriously. But on X, Herzog made clear he "emphasised Israel's desire for peace" while identifying "Iran and its terror proxies" as the top strategic threat — a direct reference to the regime that is China's largest oil customer.
And that's the thread that matters. Europe Says noted that China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, which had been under U.S. sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program. Beijing brokered the 2023 Iran-Saudi diplomatic restoration and has been pushing Palestinian faction unity — getting rival groups to agree to an interim reconciliation government in 2024 that was never implemented. China is building a mediation portfolio in the Middle East, and every mediation creates a constituency for Beijing's influence.
What neither outlet lingered on is the hypocrisy staring back from the podium. China annexed Tibet in the 1950s and has encouraged Han Chinese migration to dilute its population. Beijing operates mass detention camps in Xinjiang for Uyghurs. It snuffed out Hong Kong's self-governance. This is the regime now lecturing a sovereign nation on the morality of its settlements.
Europe Says buried China's own minority suppression in a single sentence at the bottom, noting Beijing "rejects those claims" and framing them as allegations. Breitbart didn't mention Tibet, Xinjiang, or Hong Kong at all.
The ceasefire in Gaza, brokered by the U.S. in October 2025, has held in name only. Israel has conducted strikes in Gaza nearly every day since, with the Hamas-run health ministry reporting more than 1,400 Palestinians killed in the year since the ceasefire began. Progress to the deal's next phase is stalled, with both sides accusing the other of violations.
None of this requires American intervention — and certainly not lectures from a communist regime with its own occupied territories. Sovereign nations handle their own affairs. Beijing's play for Middle East mediator is a power grab, not a peace initiative, and the correct American response is to stop writing checks that fund the very globalist architecture China is now exploiting.
