New Delhi: The word ‘Israel’ appears to have been scrubbed from online digital maps maintained by Chinese companies Baidu and Alibaba.
After The Wall Street Journal reported this late Monday, ThePrint accessed these platforms Tuesday and verified that this remained the case.
In the case of Baidu, the border lines between Israel and the Palestinian territories — the West Bank and Gaza — are clearly demarcated, as are major cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. However, no names are given to mark Israel or the Palestinian territories as a whole, although a search for the term “Israel” in Mandarin directs to a zoomed-out version of the entire Israel-Palestine region.
Alibaba’s Amap, on the other hand, is far vaguer in its presentation of the region, with the territory on the map just appearing as a blank space. Neither are the borderlines between Israeli territory, the West Bank and Gaza marked, nor do any names of urban areas located within these territories show up. A search for the term “Israel” in Mandarin redirects to Israeli consular services in China.
The Journal’s report added that this ambiguous removal of the country labels on the maps “matches Beijing’s vague diplomacy in the region and contrasts with its attentiveness to maps generally…China’s government has over the years cried foul and levied fines over maps published elsewhere online, such as on hotel websites, for failing to strictly adhere to Beijing’s territorial claims, like leaving off a nine-dotted line stretching around the South China Sea that isn’t internationally recognised.”
China historically supported the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution, having supplied arms to the Palestine Liberation Organization, but has since evolved to become a significant trading partner with Israel today.
However, China’s initial statement on the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war was controversial in its lack of direct condemnation of Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October.
“The recurrence of the conflict shows once again that the protracted standstill of the peace process cannot go on. The fundamental way out of the conflict lies in implementing the two-state solution and establishing an independent State of Palestine. The international community needs to act with greater urgency, step up input into the Palestinian question, facilitate the early resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel, and find a way to bring about enduring peace,” the statement reads.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has since said that every country has the right to self-defence, while also asserting that Israel’s retaliatory actions on Gaza since the Hamas attack had gone well-beyond the scope of self defence.
Also read: China has a big advantage in Gaza war—it can influence Iran