Iran’s missile strikes to avenge Soleimani killing top online trends in China

China on Wednesday urged both the United States and Iran to exercise restraint and resolve their dispute through dialogue hours after Tehran launched missile strikes against US-led forces in Iran in retaliation against a US drone attack that killed a top Iranian commander last week.

“The worsening of the situation in the Middle East region is not in any side’s interests,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said during the daily ministerial briefing on Wednesday, reiterating a call for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Earlier in the day, news agencies quoted the Iranian state television as saying that Tehran had fired a barrage of missiles at US targets in Iraq, a “hard” response to Friday’s killing of Qassem Soleimani.

ALSO WATCH | Iran fires ballistic missiles on Iraqi air bases hosting US military forces

Washington said at least two Iraqi facilities hosting U.S.-led coalition personnel were targeted.

Geng said China was in close contact with relevant parties in the UN Security Council when asked at the briefing what Beijing was doing to resolve the conflict that threatens to escalate.

Earlier in the week, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had said that the US should stop abusing the power of force, adding that Washington’s “risky behaviour” violated the basic norms of international relations.

Speaking to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif over the phone, Wang had said Beijing will continue to play a constructive role in maintaining peace and security in the Middle East.

Chinese state media, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that the Beijing-based Iranian embassy’s updates about the latest developments in the region were trending across China’s social media.

The Iranian embassy in China has become an “online celebrity”, reported the nationalistic tabloid Global Times.

“Iran’s embassy in China has won overwhelming attention from Chinese netizens, for its posts on the country’s retaliatory attacks on US military bases in Iraq, making it an ‘online celebrity’ on social media,” the tabloid reported.

“End of malign US presence in West Asia has begun,” said the Iranian embassy on China’s Twitter-like platform Sina Weibo on Wednesday, which had been “liked, commented on and forwarded” by netizens more than 412,694 times until Wednesday afternoon.

The topics “US airbases in Iraq have been attacked” and, “Iran says the attack was to revenge for Soleimani” were the first, second and third most trending topics on Weibo and have been viewed nearly 630 million times, the report said.

“The US Embassy in China also posted on Weibo the remarks by the US President Donald Trump on the killing of Soleimani but those posts received far fewer likes and comments, many of which mocked the US president,” it said.

Social media in China is closely monitored by authorities and opinions against the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) narrative are heavily censored.