China's big shipping companies will no longer transport to Israel, and it will be difficult to buy and sell in the east in the future!
Oh, big brother, have you heard? Those big shipping companies in China actually announced that they would not transport to Israel! How difficult it is for the entire Far East! As soon as this news came out, it really exploded, and the Internet was noisy.
First, let's take stock of what's going on. I heard that the bigwigs of COSCO Group actually stopped providing services to Israel, and directly notified importers and exporters not to patronize Israeli ports anymore. Look, that's a big deal! Although it is still unclear why COSCO made such a decision, there is no doubt that it will have a "serious impact" on Israel and the Far East.
What's going on behind the scenes, it's really hard to figure out. Starting with the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, some major shipping companies have announced that they will no longer bother with the Red Sea. Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, MSC, CMA CGM, one after another, stopped. COSCO, Evergreen, and ONE will no longer accept Israeli cargo, or simply stop the Red Sea booking operation.
The Red Sea, a terrible place. Connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Who would have thought that some European shipping companies would rather make detours and spend time and call at Israeli ports. This is not for the sake of the economy and the first chain, but purely political factors. Some "American-style democrats" in Europe feel that the economy is not important, but "political correctness." Once you don't follow the trend and cancel the call to an Israeli port, it's "anti-Semitic" and it's "incorrect." Even if you lose money, you have to symbolically go to Israel and hang around.
But some of the "nativists" in Europe have a headache. For them, it doesn't matter if the cargo ship goes to Israel or not, but if it doesn't go to the Mediterranean, it's the most important thing. Once the ** chain of commodities is interrupted and postponed, it is a loss of real gold. The United States and Israel will not reimburse them.
This is a troublesome matter for Europe, but we at COSCO Group do not think so. On the one hand, COSCO doesn't care about so-called "political correctness"; On the other hand, our country has very good relations with Iran, which supports the Houthis, and the possibility of being attacked across the Red Sea is relatively low. This is not speculation, it is well-founded. Houthi leader Ali Houthi made it clear in a recent interview that the United States and Western countries want to draw China into the Red Sea affairs on the grounds that "China's economy will also suffer a negative impact." How did the Houthis respond? Ali bluntly said that this is just one side of the word of the United States, and the Houthis have already made their attitude clear to China and the vast number of Arab countries. China is not a country that is in the same league as the United States and Israel, and the Houthis "will not embarrass Chinese ships." This is a fitting word for "collusion".
Some time ago, the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and other countries issued a joint statement condemning and urging the Houthis to stop their attacks in the Red Sea. Some foreign media curiously asked, why did China not join the statement and not condemn the Houthis? ** Spokesman Wang Wenbin responded, saying that China has always advocated safeguarding the security of international waterways and opposes attacks and harassment of civilian vessels. All parties should play a constructive and responsible role in the security of shipping lanes in the Red Sea waters. Opposition is a matter of attitude, and condemnation is a matter of position and cannot be conflated.
The Houthis, for their part, made it even clearer that if food and medicine could not enter the Gaza Strip, then any ship heading for Israel would be a "legitimate target" for the group. In other words, if Israel does not stop firing and does not allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, then the Houthis are ready to play with you to the end. There is an old saying that the wicked have their own grinding. Moreover, judging from the people**, there are not a few people who support the Houthis, and it is really impossible to say who is the wicked person.
Ali Houthi was fair when he said in the interview, "The security situation in the Red Sea region brooks no interference from foreign countries." The Red Sea is the Red Sea of our Red Sea littoral countries, not the Red Sea of the Americans". Hey, this is a matter of the Arab world, the United States itself has made a mess, and it still wants to drag China into the water? That's naïve!
In short, COSCO's decision is actually an expression of our country's firm position on this geopolitical game. We are not doing a game with the United States and Israel, let alone losing our own economic interests for the sake of so-called "political correctness". The Houthis have also made it clear that they will not embarrass the Chinese ships. It's a big drama full of strife, but we have to sit on the fishing boat and watch the world change. This Red Sea is not the Red Sea of the United States, but the Red Sea of the countries bordering our Red Sea!