Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, recently pulled on a fresh pair of bossy-boots and set off for China to deliver some familiar American lectures on why Beijing should stop behaving in ways that distress Washington. Basic message: Let’s see less impertinence and more obedience, thank you. Otherwise, take a look inside this box of American sanctions.

Blinken followed in the footsteps of other recent senior figures from the Biden administration, who traveled to China and applied the same combination of badgering persuasion (sometimes chocolate-coated) and arm-twisting.

China was well prepared for this latest Blinken visit and responded with some deliberate, pushback messaging, stressing, for example, that the US should not say one thing and do another. This overall Beijing response was constructively grounded by a positive view of the future, however. President Xi Jinping explained in his meeting with Blinken that he “proposed three major principles: mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation” as the three overarching principles for the relationship, adding that “China welcomes a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States”.

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Dealing with China is clearly demanding for visiting senior US officials, not least given the evident, ongoing US project to contain China’s rise. But in Beijing, Blinken and others find themselves dealing with well-informed, rational, hard-bargaining but constructive senior leaders. Moreover, they are treated with fundamental diplomatic respect.

Israel, led by Netanyahu, expressed immediate outrage following the first public hint of sanctions. Washington was instructed emphatically by Israel that any planned American punishments were unacceptable

In contrast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ticks few of these affirmative boxes, with certain members of his government even more ill-disposed toward any form of constructive engagement.

For Blinken, repeatedly visiting Israel must, by now, be an exceptionally difficult and miserable experience. One of the Middle East’s leading commentators, John V Whitbeck, lately captured the essence of why this is so, noting that “Few who have been paying attention in recent months can now deny or dispute [that] the submissive and subservient US government simply takes orders and pays tribute to its Israeli masters”.

The latest extraordinary confirmation of Israeli master-servant scorn arose from the killing, through abusive treatment, of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man, by a unit of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in 2022. This IDF unit, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, is known for its lethal extremist methods. When the report of this homicide was leaked to New York-based ProPublica (which concentrates on investigative journalism), the Biden administration moved to sanction Netzah Yehuda. ProPublica also highlighted how Blinken had ignored earlier State Department sanctions recommendations. Israel, led by Netanyahu, expressed immediate outrage following the first public hint of sanctions. Washington was instructed emphatically by Israel that any planned American punishments were unacceptable.

Within a few days, Blinken reversed the plan to sanction this unit. Right about this time, The Times of Israel confirmed that the US Congress had approved a fresh package of ongoing and Gaza-related military support for Israel worth $17 billion.

READ MORE: Talks can be fruitful if Washington bears in mind it takes two to tango

The current Israeli government has demonstrated continuous contempt for the Biden administration as it advances the horrific, vengeful genocide in Gaza.  Never mind that the US is funding and arming this human rights outrage with multibillion-dollar support. This, it seems, is taken for granted. Such a disparaging approach also helps the master in this relationship ensure that the preferred pecking order remains locked in place.

Of course, a fundamental reason the Israel-US relationship works in this perilous, upside-down way is that Israel enjoys a conspicuous advantage compared to any other foreign nation when it comes to influencing and shaping American political outcomes. Indeed, Israel can humiliate American politicians swiftly and at will, as Blinken has just discovered.

Certain influential online Chinese commentators in Hong Kong maintain that a key reason Blinken was unusually pleased about visiting Beijing, no matter the outcome, was that it gave him an incontrovertible respite and temporary escape pass from the geopolitical nightmare pivoting on Israel — and Gaza — which he is otherwise customarily trapped inside. An examination of the balanced evidence lends prominent weight to the cogency of this argument.

The author is an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.