8. Covering the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

This chapter examines how the Chinese news media cover the complex and enduring Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Content analysis and CDA demonstrate that People’s Daily and Global Times pay more attention to the current and immediate conflicts than the long and sustainable conflicts. Neither pro-Israel nor pro-Palestine leanings are evident in the titles. But interviews reveal that two political factions—pro-Israel and pro-Palestine—exist in China. Although the foreign policy and general editorial guidelines focus on neutrality and balance, the news outlets tend to favour Palestine. Journalists are free to criticize Israel but they must be cautious about criticizing Palestine for the sake of Sino-Arab traditional friendship and the risks of causing ethnic tensions with Muslims in China.