A top Chinese diplomat threatened to downgrade relations with the State of Israel and sever ties with The Jerusalem Post unless the Post deletes an interview with the Taiwanese foreign minister published on Monday.
Controversial article
"Got call from Chinese embassy," tweeted Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz on Monday. "Apparently I’m supposed to take down the story or they will sever ties with The Jerusalem Post and downgrade relations with the State of Israel. Needless to say, story ain’t going anywhere."
Didn’t take long. Got call from Chinese embassy. Apparently I’m supposed to take down the story or they will sever ties with the @Jerusalem_Post and downgrade relations with the State of Israel. Needless to say, story ain’t going anywhere. https://t.co/BypRMTbc6W
— Yaakov Katz (@yaakovkatz) May 30, 2022
The request to remove the article came not long after the article was published on the website. The article will be available in print in the Tuesday edition of The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
In the article, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned Israel in an exclusive interview that Israel was relying too much on China — and that Beijing was readying to invade Taiwan.
Past China-'Post' problems
The Chinese embassy to Israel has previously condemned the Post over the articles it has published.
In response to a May 10 op-ed article on events in the Xinjiang province, the embassy wrote a letter criticizing the publication of an "anti-China article written by a 'Xinjiang independence' separatist."
"We firmly oppose and strongly condemn that the Post, in disregard of the fact that Xinjiang is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory, served as a platform for 'Xinjiang independence' separatists by publishing their anti-China article."
Chinese embassy to Israel
Wu advised Israel in his interview with the Post not to make concessions to Beijing when dealing with China, and not to "worry about China getting upset at you. When they get upset at you, that means you are doing something right.”