China Expert: Has Beijing Betrayed Palestine? Why The Left Is Asking The Wrong Question | Carlos Martinez & Radhika Desai

Is China betraying the world's oppressed nations, or is it playing a longer, harder game than its critics understand? Carlos Martinez, author of The East is Still Red and co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, joins me to confront the charge, common even on parts of the left, that Beijing does far too little for Palestine, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. Martinez traces China's foreign policy from the internationalism of Bandung and the Non-Aligned Movement, through its rapprochement with Washington and entry into the world economy, to its present balancing act between principled solidarity and hard-nosed realism. We examine why China rejects unilateral sanctions even against Israel, why its UN vetoes on Gaza are strategy rather than betrayal, and why the more urgent question isn't what China should be doing, but what the rest of us should.