Does China welcome—or dread—an Iran-Israel war?
It wants American interests to suffer, but not at any price
LAST MONTH, as tensions escalated between Iran and Israel, China helped organise a five-day Chinese film festival in the Iranian capital, Tehran. It opened with a blockbuster: “The Battle at Lake Changjin”. The drama portrays the heroism of Chinese soldiers who fought against American troops in the Korean war of 1950-53. “Strike one punch to avoid a hundred,” Mao Zedong is shown exhorting his colleagues. Nationalist bloggers in China crowed about the film’s showing. “Iran cannot sit idly by, even if the United States is behind Israel!” wrote a widely read scribe.
Explore more
Discover more
How to escape from China to America
We travel with Chinese migrants on the deadly journey to America’s border
Michael Kovrig, former hostage of the Chinese state
Three years after his release, the Canadian tells his story to The Economist
Why China is awash in unwanted milk
Dairy farmers are dumping the stuff, as some call for culling cows
Worries of a Soviet-style collapse keep Xi Jinping up at night
China’s Communists have now been in power longer than the Soviets
A missile test by China marks its growing nuclear ambitions
America worries that it is looking to surpass its own capabilities one day
Another attack on a Japanese local points to a big problem in China
Has anti-Japanese xenophobia gone too far?
