China threatens to downgrade Israel ties over ‘Post’ Taiwan interview

A top Chinese diplomat threatened to downgrade relations with the State of Israel and sever ties with The Jerusalem Post unless the Post delete 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.”

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.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu attends a news conference in Taipei. (credit: REUTERS/TYRONE SIU)

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 th