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How Israel Is Winning the Social Media War in China

(Business Spectator-Australia) Peter Cai - Israelis are pouring resources into winning the war of opinion in China. Michael Anti, a prominent Chinese blogger, looks at this issue in Caixin, a respected business magazine. He observes that Taiwanese social media users are generally supportive of the Palestinian cause while many mainland Chinese are rooting for the State of Israel. It is an interesting reversal of their countries' official positions, Taipei is generally considered to be pro-Israel and Beijing pro-Palestinian. In China, the rising popular backlash against Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism is helping Israelis win hearts and minds. China has suffered a string of deadly terrorist attacks recently and many of them are connected with Jihadist-inspired separatist groups in Xinjiang. The Israeli embassy in Beijing maintains one of the most popular social media accounts among diplomatic missions in China, with close to 850,000 followers. By comparison, the U.S. embassy has 890,000 followers. A recent Israeli embassy post which compares Hamas to the notorious IS terrorist organization is drawing many sympathetic comments. The majority of comments support Israel's attack on Hamas.
2014-09-05 00:00:00
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