It was back in the 1990s
that the Chinese began to realize that Israel was fast becoming a global
technology hub. Previous frosty
relations began to thaw, and China started to engage with Israel’s growing
hi-tech, partly to enhance Chinese power in the Middle East, partly to help
speed their own innovative developments.
It was not long before the thriving economic and technological
Sino-Israeli relationship became a cause of concern to the US administration. The
US regards China as its prime competitor for influence and profit in the Middle
East, and warning bells began ringing in Washington.
The US National
Security Strategy prioritizes “maintaining an enduring competitive edge”
over China. The head of Britain’s secret service, citing China’s cyber warfare
and espionage activities in the UK, recently called it the agency’s top
intelligence priority. He was none too
complimentary, either, about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI), which has seen China investing billions into development
projects throughout the Middle East and Africa in an obvious attempt to enhance
Chinese power and influence. “Debt and
data traps” was his succinct description.
Benjamin Netanyahu,
Israel’s prime minister in the twelve years till June 2021, did not quite see
it that way. Over that period, with his
enthusiastic support, Israeli governments conducted a clear policy of promoting
economic relations with China in the fields of hi-tech innovation, investment, infrastructure
projects and trade. Netanyahu perceived China’s growing economy as an important
opportunity for Israel. Chinese
companies, mainly through the BRI, have been involved in upgrading Israeli
ports and in building infrastructure such as the Tel Aviv light rail.
Even so, Israel has
consistently maintained control over network management and electricity
provision, restricted Chinese companies from controlling key infrastructures
and ensured that Israel remains in charge of management, maintenance, and
development of its ports. The light rail in the Tel Aviv area runs about 150
meters from the headquarters of the Israeli military. Aware of the obvious security
risk, in January 2019 then-Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman called for legislation
to oversee Chinese involvement in the country’s infrastructure projects.
In May 2020 Washington
formally asked its allies to sever ties with China in areas with security
risks. As a result, in August 2020 the
UK government announced that products manufactured by the China-based company
Huawei, one the world’s largest providers of telecommunications equipment,
would be removed entirely from the UK’s 5G networks by the end of 2027.
Slowly, perhaps too
slowly, the democracies have come to understand the danger to national security
of allowing China-based companies to construct and operate infrastructure
projects that are key to the functioning of the state itself. As a result,
Sino-Israeli relations have cooled.
One expert commentator,
noting that bilateral trade grew from $50 million in 1992 to some $15 billion or
more in 2021, added that “a closer look at the data shows that in 2018 both
Israeli exports to China and Chinese investment in Israel peaked. The former
thereafter declined and then plateaued.”
Israel has also taken
steps to align its political position on China with Washington. In late June
2021 Israel joined with the US in the UN Human Rights Council’s condemnation of
China’s inhumane treatment and forced incarceration of its Uyghur minority. On
the thorny issue of Taiwan, recognized as an independent state by much of the
world but long claimed by China as one of its provinces, Israel could not
remain neutral if China decided to invade.
The US would most likely condemn China and impose sanctions, and Israel
would most likely concur. One reason why
China’s President Xi has hesitated thus far from taking irrevocable action
against Taiwan is probably the damage it would cause to China’s carefully
constructed power and influence BRI structure across the Middle East.
On December 1, 2022 the Washington-based
Middle East Institute published a carefully researched survey of the current
state of Sino-Israeli relations. Among a
variety of other issues, it noted that since 2019 favorable views of China
among Israelis have declined. Until
then Chinese state media and Chinese
diplomats had succeeded in penetrating Israel’s media sector and shaping
Israeli public opinion. Among the devices employed were direct messaging to the
Israeli public in local Hebrew-language newspapers, and the use of the Hebrew
department of China Radio International targeted at Israeli audiences.
Israeli sentiment has
shifted for a number of reasons, not least the public’s awareness of repression
in China, Beijing’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, unfavorable reporting
by the Chinese media of the 2021 conflict with Hamas in Gaza, and repeated voting
against Israel in the UN. Most impactful, perhaps, has been Beijing’s policy in
respect of Iran. By continuing to import
Iranian oil, China has provided Iran with an economic lifeline, leading to a possible
strategic partnership with a regime dedicated to destroying Israel
By late 2022 Israelis had come to recognize the potential risk to its national security from China’s cyber technology, and the danger of becoming economically dependent. Bilateral trade and investment slowed. Meanwhile, Israel was facing increasing pressure from the US to limit Chinese involvement in the Israeli economy.
In his recently
published memoir Netanyahu describes the tightrope he walked in Israeli-Chinese
relations. While seeking to foster
bilateral China-Israel investment, he was at the same time candid with the
Chinese about his firm commitment to the US to restrict military and
intelligence technologies.
Now Netanyahu is back in
charge of Israel’s government. As the
Institute for National Security Studies recently remarked: “The man who over
the past decade enthusiastically championed the development of Israel’s
relations with China must chart Israel’s future path between China and the
United States, and between the economy and national security.”
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-729381
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