China Destroys Israel's Narrative As 'Propaganda No One Believes'

Israel is more isolated. The geopolitical chessboard is tilting. Perhaps more pawns will start to fight back.

At Beijing's Xiangshan Forum on September 18, 2025, China's Yan Xuetong publicly demolished Israel's Gaza narrative with unflinching clarity.

In a viral exchange, Tsinghua University's dean tore into Israeli diplomat and IDF attaché Elad Shoshan:

"You killed more than 70,000 civilians! ... Your government has no legitimacy or the right to decide what is fact."

Dismissing hostage-release rhetoric as "propaganda no one believes except a few Israelis," Yan's unfiltered takedown, unprecedented in such forums, signals China's bold pivot against Israel.

This outburst occurred as freshly inked US-China framework on TikTok is signed, handing 80% control of the app's US operations to a consortium of American investors—Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and Oracle—while leaving 20% with Chinese firms.

Andreessen Horowitz and Oracle are led by Trump’s staunchest Silicon Valley allies. Marc Andreessen, a frequent Mar-a-Lago visitor in late 2024, advised Trump on policy and recruited for Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative, pushing to dismantle the CFPB over unfounded claims it targeted conservatives. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s founder, backed Trump’s 2020 election challenges and briefly became the world’s richest person in 2025. Now, Ellison eyes TikTok while expanding his media influence through his son David’s Skydance-Paramount merger ($8 billion, owning CBS News) and a potential $70 billion Warner Bros. bid for CNN, with Bari Weiss, hired via a Free Press buyout, stoking fears of editorial bias at CBS.

TikTok’s pivot is already chilling speech. Since July 2025, the platform has escalated a crackdown on pro-Palestine creators—deleting Gaza videos, scrubbing “Free Palestine” comments in real time, and burying posts exposing Israeli war crimes. Driving this shift is Erica Mindel, a former IDF instructor hired to shape hate-speech policy, her Zionism forged during Operation Protective Edge, with ADL lobbying in tow.

By September 13, TikTok’s overhauled guidelines banned calling the IDF “terrorists,” unleashing automated moderation that retroactively wipes posts. With Oracle, Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz—Trump’s loyalists—set to seize 80% of TikTok’s US arm, expect this censorship to tighten, tilting the platform’s lens further against Gaza’s truth. Together, these events expose Israel's creeping isolation: a US less tethered to endless wars, a China courting the Global South, and a multipolar world redrawing battle lines.

Israeli corporation, CyberWell, is dictating content removal for antisemitism on X, Meta, and TikTok, using the IHRA Zionist definition.

For years, China has played the long game in international forums, prioritizing economic ties and strategic ambiguity over moral grandstanding. But here, at the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum on September 18, 2025, Yan's words signaled a seismic shift. China, the rising superpower, is no longer happy to whisper criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza. It's shouting them from the podiums of its own high-level security dialogues.

For over two years now, since the escalation in Gaza following October 7, 2023, Israel has faced mounting international pressure. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials on charges of war crimes. Protests have swept universities and cities worldwide, from New York to Cape Town. Europe's support is fracturing too: Spain, Ireland, and Norway recognized Palestine in 2024, with more nations following suit. Cultural boycotts, from Eurovision to UEFA, are gaining traction as global outrage grows.

But China's intervention at Xiangshan takes this isolation to a new level. Beijing has historically maintained a balanced stance on the Middle East, trading with Israel while supporting Palestinian statehood. Yet, as the death toll in Gaza climbs past 70,000 (a figure corroborated by UN reports and independent monitors although experts estimate the real toll is much higher), China is leaning harder into its role as a champion of the oppressed.

This isn't altruism; it's smart power. By calling out Israel so publicly, China positions itself as the moral alternative to a US-led order that's seen as hypocritical—preaching human rights while arming allies accused of atrocities. It's a play for influence in the Arab world, Africa, and Asia, where resentment toward Western imperialism runs deep. And it's working: Polls from the Arab Barometer show favorable views of China surging in the region, while US approval plummets.

Now, extrapolate this to the bigger picture, and you see how geopolitical pressures are reshaping alliances. Enter the TikTok deal, announced just days before the Xiangshan Forum—a "framework" agreement between the US and China that averts a nationwide ban on the app.

At the helm is Silver Lake, plus Andreessen Horowitz—run by Marc Andreessen, a prolific Trump donor who logged half his time at Mar-a-Lago post-2024 election, advised on economics, and pushed DOGE to gut the CFPB over its probes into his fintech bets—and Oracle, helmed by Larry Ellison, Trump's 2020 election confidant who amassed riches to eclipse Musk briefly in 2025.

Ellison's influence extends to media conquests: His son David's Skydance scooped Paramount in August 2025 with FCC greenlights, installing "anti-woke" Bari Weiss at CBS News via a Free Press buyout that has journalists dreading bias erosion, while eyeing a $70 billion Warner Bros. swoop for CNN dominance.

Trump championed Ellison for TikTok post-inauguration, turning national security into a billionaire playground

On the surface, this seems counterintuitive. How can China be lambasting Israel's US-backed actions one day and cutting a deal with Trump the next? But that's the genius and cynicism of superpower politics. The TikTok pact highlights a pragmatic thaw in US-China relations under Trump 2.0. Remember, Trump and Xi Jinping have a history of backroom deal-making; their 2018-2020 trade talks were a rollercoaster of tariffs and truces. Now, with Trump back in the White House, Xi is using TikTok as a bargaining chip to ease tensions on other fronts—like semiconductors, EVs, and Taiwan. In exchange, China gets to keep some influence over the app's algorithm (via data safeguards) while avoiding a full-blown economic decoupling.

This deal also exposes the pressures squeezing Israel. Trump's "America First" isolationism means he's less inclined to unconditionally back Netanyahu's forever war. By cozying up to Xi on TikTok, Trump signals that US foreign policy is increasingly transactional—willing to overlook China's human rights record (Uyghurs, Hong Kong) for economic wins.

This leaves Israel more exposed, as its staunchest ally prioritizes deals with rivals. Meanwhile, China's Xiangshan outburst amplifies global isolation: If even Beijing, a master of realpolitik, is willing to risk ties with Israel over Gaza, what does that say about the sustainability of Israel's genocidal campaign?

Looking ahead, these developments point to a multipolar world where old alliances fray and new ones form. China's rise isn't just economic; it's ideological, offering an alternative to Western dominance that's appealing to nations tired of double standards. Israel's isolation could accelerate if the genocide in Gaza is not stopped—potentially leading to more boycotts, diplomatic downgrades, and even shifts in US policy under pressure from a war-weary public. The TikTok deal, meanwhile, might trigger more US-China cooperation, but at what cost? If Trump allies control a platform with 170 million US users, expect accusations of political bias and data privacy nightmares.

In the end, Yan Xuetong's words at Xiangshan send a strong signal in that he is saying the quiet parts out loud: The era of unchecked US-Israeli hegemony is waning. China is stepping into the void with blunt truths and strategic deals. For those watching from Gaza's rubble or Washington's corridors, the message is clear: The geopolitical chessboard is tilting, and perhaps more pawns will start to fight back.