{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases/hinson-washington-examiner-china-capitalizing-hamas-terrorist-attacks", "Hinson in the Washington Examiner: China is capitalizing on Hamas terrorist attacks", "2023-12-22", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Ashley Hinson", "H001091", "hinson.house.gov", "hinson", "https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Rep. Ashley Hinson\n\nThe Washington Examiner\n\nDecember 22, 2023\n\nLast year, I visited Israel with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. I met wonderful Israelis, including at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which was savaged by Hamas on Oct. 7, and was struck by how they lived under constant fear of attack each day. That constant dread became reality earlier this year, when Hamas launched its brutal terrorist attacks against Israel.\n\nFollowing the horrific attacks on innocent Israeli citizens at the hands of Hamas terrorists, freedom-loving countries and moral people everywhere rightly condemned Hamas and shared their support for Israel. However, communist China did not let this crisis go to waste. The Chinese Communist Party capitalized on the death and destruction to prop up Hamas terrorists, gain favor from Iran and its proxies, and sow division within the United States.\n\nIn its first statement following the strikes, China urged both sides to \u201cexercise restraint\u201d and \u201cremain calm\u201d without so much as mentioning the innocent Israelis who were brutalized and murdered by Hamas terrorists. This did not come as a shock, given the CCP\u2019s genocide against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.\n\nChina\u2019s conciliatory tone toward Hamas is part of its larger strategy to displace and undermine American global leadership, particularly in the developing world. China\u2019s growing engagement in the Middle East has been calculated. From its predatory lending practices in African countries struggling with jihadi insurgents and armed militias to building significant trade relationships with anti-democratic dictators, the CCP has long been working to tip the global geopolitical scales in its favor.\n\nMost concerning is the rising friendship between China and Iran, and both have a vested interest in seeing America\u2019s foreign policy objectives fail. In true \"the enemy of my enemy is my friend\u201d fashion, China and Iran\u2019s relationship capitalizes on their shared anti-Western ideologies. China is the No. 1 buyer of Iranian oil, meaning Iran gets to sell its oil and avoid U.S. sanctions while China gets to buy it at a discount, saving billions. Chinese ports serve as major destinations for Iranian tankers conducting illicit trade, also in violation of U.S. sanctions.\n\nShortly after Hamas\u2019s terrorist attacks, the CCP dispatched diplomats across the Middle East. This was not only an attempt to cast itself as a peace broker on the world stage but to degrade America\u2019s effective diplomacy in the region following the success of the Abraham Accords. Naturally, CCP diplomats discredited Hamas\u2019s brutality and refused to condemn Iran, its major oil supplier and partner in chaos, and its influence and funding for Hamas.\n\nChina\u2019s opportunistic response is not confined to Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. The CCP has also attempted to sow discord here at home in the U.S. The CCP has intentionally promoted anti-Israel, pro-Hamas content on TikTok, targeting young people who get their news from this dangerous app. The People\u2019s Forum, a \u201cnonprofit\u201d organization with dubious ties to the CCP, is reportedly backing pro-Hamas protests across the U.S. in support of a ceasefire that would undermine Israel\u2019s necessary ground offensive and American efforts to bring hostages home safely.\n\nChina has a vested interest in Iran, through its terrorist proxies, achieving its goal of destroying the Jewish state of Israel and eliminating America\u2019s closest and most important ally in the region. We cannot allow the CCP to take the moral high ground publicly while actively supporting Hamas, meddling in American politics, and working to subvert U.S. diplomacy abroad. Standing with Israel means calling out the supporters and enablers of the Oct. 7 massacre \u2014 and anyone who refuses to denounce them.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://hinson.house.gov/media/press-releases/hinson-washington-examiner-china-capitalizing-hamas-terrorist-attacks"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4996286481618881, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}