China’s national flag is seen waving at the Chinese Consulate General in Houston, Texas, July 22, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Adrees Latif.

i24 News – The Israeli embassy in Beijing accused Chinese-state broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) of “blatant antisemitism” on Wednesday after one of its presenters used a number of antisemitic conspiracy theories while delivering a report on US policy and its relationship to Israel.

According to Channel News Asia, presenter Zheng Junfeng said that “some people think that the pro-Israel policy of the United States is linked to the influence of wealthy Jews in the United States and the Jewish lobby on US foreign policymakers.”

Zheng continued: “Jews dominate the financial, media, and Internet industries” in the US.

Zheng then accused the United States — China’s main geopolitical rival — of using Israel as a “bridgehead” in the Middle East and as a proxy in its campaign to defeat pan-Arabism.

The comments aired on CGTN, which is the English-language arm of Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, immediately drew outrage from Israel’s diplomatic mission in Beijing, which stated in a tweet that it was “appalled to see blatant antisemitism expressed in an official Chinese media outlet.”

“The claims expressed in the video are racist and dangerous, and should be avoided by any media outlet that respects itself,” the embassy said.

CGNT, which is owned by the Chinese state media China Central Television (CCTV), is under the control of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

The embassy has so far received no response from CGTN, which CCTV operates for foreign audiences, spokesman Erez Katz Volovelsky said.