ABSTRACT
In the year 2002, a dramatic change occurred in Chinese cyberspace con-
cerning the Chinese understanding of Israel and the Jewish people. Descri-
bed by some people as a language revolution, the change involved a re-
examination of the history of the Jewish people, especially that of the State
of Israel, discussions about the true situation of Palestinians and terrorism
and the relationship between the Chinese people and the Jewish people. Empowered by a relative freedom of expression and information access on
the internet, a large number of Chinese websurfers challenged the anti-Zio-
nist tradition in Communist China and rephrased their expressions regard-
ing Zionism, the State of Israel, the Jewish people, etc. While traditional
pro-Palestinian voices are still the mainstream in Chinese official media,
pro-Israeli activities in Chinese cyberspace in 2002 radically changed the
whole picture and made pro-Israeli expressions a common fact in the Chinese
virtual world.1
