The assertion that China may provide “moral authority” in the Israel-Iran dispute has gotten Democratic Minnesota governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz in hot water.
Responding to a question posed by Neera Tanden, a former Biden White House counselor, on the “escalatory” character of the attacks between the two countries, Walz was speaking last week at a “What’s Next: Conversations on the Path Forward” event held by the Center for American Progress (CAP).
“Now, who among us has the global influence to mediate a settlement to this?” So, who is the one with the moral clout? If someone could accomplish it, who would it be? According to Walz, the United States’ neutrality in mediating Middle Eastern problems has been tarnished, if not completely lost, over the years.
Distinguished senior scholar in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Danielle Pletka told AWN Digital that Walz’s views are “ignorance on display.” This comes at a time when the United States is considering hitting Iran and the Middle East is raging in conflict.
Walz claims that the US originally sought “to be somewhat of the arbitrator” in the MENA region; however, the US now has to confront the fact that the “neutral actor” with the “moral authority” to spearhead MENA resolution talks “might be the Chinese.”
Walz stopped short of explaining China’s claim to global leadership.
“It’s so staggering to me that Tim Walz was within a heartbeat of the presidency,” Pletka said, after which he added, “We don’t need a neutral player here,” and urged Walz to “stick to local politics.”
As Andy Keiser, a conservative think tanker and ex-assistant to the House Intelligence Committee, put it to AWN Digital, “remind Governor Walz that China is far from a moral authority on much of anything,” adding that China is engaging in “cultural genocide.”
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) states that “more than a million Muslims have reportedly been arbitrarily detained in reeducation camps since 2017” by the Chinese government. “Most of the people who have been detained are Uyghur, a predominantly Turkic-speaking ethnic group primarily in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.”
“Uyghurs in the region have been subjected to intense surveillance, forced labor, and involuntary sterilizations, among other rights abuses,” the CFR adds, citing the detentions as secondary.
President Xi Jinping has “detained human rights defenders, tightened control over civil society, media, and the internet, and deployed invasive mass surveillance technology” in Xinjiang and Tibet, which Human Rights Watch has compared to “crimes against humanity.”
“I would strongly beg to differ that China has a moral authority on much in the world,” Keiser said, adding, “I would not see them as a neutral arbiter here.”
“Obviously, we are not going to be a neutral broker between a terrorist and a democratic state,” said Pletka. It doesn’t work that way. We are to view you in a balanced light in relation to Israel, our most vital Middle Eastern friend, after you vowed to assassinate the president of the US?
Iranian President Donald Trump is still a target, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told AWN’s Bret Baier on Monday. Their goal is to eliminate him. His opponent count is one.
When it comes to China’s involvement, I don’t think anybody could have articulated it better than Wald. Claiming that everyone is a “honest burger” and that there is a neutral third party in every conversation is “pure grad school silliness,” Pletka remarked.
Indeed, China is unable to fulfill that function, Pletka continued. China has betrayed its word over Hong Kong, is threatening Taiwan, and is backing Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. It is an authoritarian communist [state].
She pointed out, “This is not a playground in which you need somebody who can talk to both Bobby and Billy about why it is you don’t smack your friends.”
That it should boil down to an impartial third party hearing arguments from both sides is a bad notion. In this case, there is clearly a victor and a vanquished party. It’s the right thing to do, by the way, because Iran has established itself as an adversary of both Israel and the US.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and 2024 GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley was quick to condemn Walz’s remarks last week when they went viral. Haley has spoken out on the danger China poses to the US while campaigning.
This is really insane. Opponents of nuclear disarmament in Iran and Israel believe that the Chinese should mediate between the two countries.Tim Walz is blessed by God. “Absolutely lip-syncing,” Haley wrote on X.
