Third, unlike what has been claimed by some people, there are no ulterior motives in Chinese investment and cooperation with Israel. Take Haifa new port for example. The SIPG, the Chinese company that won the 25-year concession of the new port, has maintained as the world’s largest port company for 9 consecutive years. In 2018 alone, the SIPG processed over 42 million TEUs. Let me put this number into perspective. If the Haifa new port were to be completed on time and reach the peak capacity without a glitch, it can process only 1.9 million TEUs per year. If it was not Israel’s targeted promotion and invitation, the SIPG would not have any interests in joining the bidding. Someone goes even further and accuses China of using Haifa new port to surveil foreign naval fleet. I trust everyone with a basic level of military knowledge can see how ridiculous the accusation is. Does China really need to apply this out-of-date method to collect intelligence?
Fourth, the Chinese companies investing or doing business in Israel are all independent market entities, and they should not suffer unwarranted attacks. The Chinese companies in Israel are either publicly listed or affiliated to a listed corporation. They may have investment from the government, but they also receive huge amount of funding from across the society, including these from Europe and America. Moreover, like all the listed companies in the world, the Chinese ones must take care of shareholders’ interests, disclose information and bear full responsibility for their profits and losses. In short, they are transparent to the public and receive supervision from the market. In Israel, every contract awarded to the Chinese companies is done through fair and transparent international bidding process. They are purely market activities. The allegation of Chinese government controlling Israeli infrastructure or transmitting sensitive data is nothing but a myth.
Rumors stop at a wise man. Israel is an independent sovereign state, and China respects Israel’s legitimate security concerns. China is not interested in sowing discord or doing any harm to the special relations between Israel and other countries. At the same time, the win-win cooperation between China and Israel should also be respected. I believe China-Israel friendship is strong enough to withstand the external pressure, and the Jewish people is wise enough to choose the course of action that serves their best interests.
