ABSTRACT
The 1967 June war was a turning point in Arab history. In a well-planned move, Israel within a few days shocked the Arab regular armies by inflicting devastating military defeats on the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts. Several factors in the events which surrounded the June 1967 war influenced China’s position. The combination of these factors had a gradual impact on shaping the military and political orientations of the Palestine Resistance Movement. China’s condemnation of the USSR’s role in the war was obviously an exaggeration, which served China’s propaganda purposes, but it provided the Chinese with an opportunity to attack the Soviets for not intervening directly on the Arab side as a ‘true ally’. Mao, according to Muḥammad H. Heikal, even sent President Naṣir a military map of the fighting area urging and explaining the means by which the Egyptian army must be divided so as to resist the invading Israelis ‘until victory’.
