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this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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Israel losing 15% of its imports would be catastrophic for the settler project, that's hardly marginal.
I think we can acknowledge that trade is support, but also recognize that China is making a hard strategic choice between the costs and benefits of cutting off Israel against the well-being of its people (because, like you said, China would be inviting reprisal on itself if it cut off trade). We don't need to avoid confronting the ugly material reality of commercial engagement with Israel by just handwaving it as unimportant. Otherwise, if it didn't matter, why would you wish for China to adopt a more militant posture?
By militant I meant more direct military deployment and open mass arming of the Resistance. I wish it were already possible. I hope it will become possible. Right now it is not. Crossing that threshold guarantees world war three. Wishing for a higher stage of struggle does not justify ignoring the current balance of forces.
The share sits under 8 percent when excluding Hong Kong. Hong Kong operates as a separate customs territory under the SAR framework. Mainland commercial policy does not dictate its trade flows, so it falls outside Chinese macroeconomic planning. Even at 15% the shock would likely be easily absorbed. Israel remains structurally embedded in the Euro American bloc. Washington is pushing a defense budget past one trillion dollars alongside direct military transfers. The EU coordinates diplomatic shielding and economic substitution to protect Tel Aviv. Any gap from reduced Chinese goods would likely instantly fill with imperialist capital (not to mind a likely increase in the billions in "aid"). Washington and Brussels would pour billions more into Israel to combat the dastardly commies and insulate the settler state. The regime does not rely on Chinese consumer goods to survive. It relies on Western security and economic guarantees.
Trade is circulation. It is not political endorsement. Commercial exchange with a client state does not equal support for its colonial project. That does not make the arrangement clean. It is morally ugly. But material analysis requires weighing concrete conditions against abstract morality. China uses these channels to build productive forces and maintain strategic autonomy while material support flows to the Resistance through separate circuits. Symbolic rupture without breaking the imperialist security architecture only weakens the anti hegemonic front. The correct line prioritizes actual disruption of capital accumulation networks over performative boycotts that serve no purpose beyond catharsis and posture.
So, you seem to be equating material support for endorsement. Those aren't the same thing.
We can say that China supports Israel with trade relations without actually endorsing them.
Did the Soviet Union support the Nazis by trading grain for machine tools between 1939 and 1941? Did they support imperialism by importing Western technology throughout the Cold War? No. I and many others would say it was quite the opposite. The same materialist logic applies here. China trades/traded commercial goods for semiconductors, diamonds, and optical equipment that cannot/could not be sourced elsewhere due to imperialist pressure and technological containment. This is not support.
Support is defined by net strategic effect, not mechanical commodity flows. The net effect is: China materially supports the Axis of Resistance while maintaining marginal civilian trade with a US client state.
The net effect is: Israel's economy continues to function with China's material support, they would be in a worse position if they were deprived of Chinese trade. Even if we disregard Hong Kong, 8% would be a serious shock - especially under current conditions! Then China could began pressuring its own trading partners to also stop trading with Israel; Hong Kong might even follow. This would have a serious cost to China, though, and they have likely determined the cost is too high and the risks too great.
What they're doing now, supporting the Axis of Resistance while avoiding Western retaliation, is likely the best strategic option.
But that doesn't mean we should just disregard trade as having material impact. We're materialists, not moralists. We can accept that China is materially supporting Israel through trade while also understanding that this isn't some kind of moral failing, and that there are additional considerations that are being made to inform their overall strategy towards Israel.