On April 28, 2016, the Chinese Hainan Airlines launched its first direct flight from Beijing to Tel Aviv, announcing that three weekly flights between both capitals via Airbus A330. Hainan Airlines is the largest private airline in China, and the fourth largest airline after the three government-owned companies: China Eastern Airlines, Air China, and South China Airline. Previously, flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv usually passed through the Thai Capital, Bangkok.
Strengthening commercial and tourism affairs
Increasing direct flights between the Chinese and Israeli counterparts is expected to give momentum to emerging relations between both sides, especially in mutual tourism and commercial industry cooperation.
1. Tourism Industry:
Direct flights are expected to increase the number of Chinese tourists willing to visit Israel; their number has already steadily increased in the past few years. According to Israeli Tourism Ministry statistics, 47,400 Chinese tourists visited Israel during 2015, marking 30 per cent year-to-year increase.
The current Israeli government relies heavily on Chinese tourism to revive the declining economy. The government has recently altered tourist infrastructures to host Chinese tourists through various methods. The most important of these methods includes training Chinese-speaking tour guides, training hotel, and restaurant chefs on preparing Chinese food and launching a website in Mandarin, the official language of China. The Israeli government has also reduced the duration required to issue tourist visas to the Chinese by two-thirds and exponentially increased the tourism marketing budget in China to reach 15 million Shekel (approximately US$4 million) in 2016.
2. Commercial Ties:
Direct flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv are expected to enhance cooperation. Businessmen will be able to travel quickly between both countries. Hence, their business will flourish, especially when current free-trade agreement negotiations concluded between both sides. The Israelis rely on concluding this agreement with Beijing to improve their economic conditions and strengthen their global position, especially with the increasingly negative impacts of European and Arab campaigns to boycott Israeli products. In November 2015, the European Commission asked EU Member States to label products imported from Israeli settlements to the EU markets.
Within this context, the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) expects that the Chinese-Israeli Free Trade agreement will lead, upon its final ratification and enforcement, to doubling the commercial exchange volume from US$8 billion during 2015 to US$16 billion. China, the second-largest commercial partner to Israel after the USA, has recently given Israel preference in technical cooperation and commercial exchange besides the EU and Canada.
Increasing commercial exchange between Israel and China provides mutual benefits. Chinese companies seek to procure Israeli technologies (especially in the fields of agriculture, renewable energy, biomedicine, electronics, communications, and desalination) to maintain its rapid economic development. Israeli companies want to penetrate the huge Chinese markets. They are also seeking Chinese partners to fund their global expansion, and partners for the continuous technological development.
Political and Strategic Motives
In addition to the potential tourism and commercial benefits to aid in developing Chinese-Israeli relations, there are many peer decision makers that have political and strategic motives to strength these relations. These motives might have urged Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to select China as the second destination to visit following the USA in March 2013, in reference to its importance for Israeli foreign policy. During that visit, Netanyahu asserted that he looked forward to a “perfect partnership” between Israel and China, further stating, “China is a global economic power and Israel is a global center of R&D, and I think we can complement each other to secure the market of tomorrow.” Political and strategic motives of both the Israeli and Chinese sides to develop their relations can be summarized as follows:
1. Israeli Motives:
The Israelis are aware that China is a rising economic and political power in the international realm. By building close ties with this power, Israel could benefit during times of crises. China is a nuclear state, with the largest global population, and its economic growth indicates that it will have the largest world economy by 2030. Also, China holds a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. All these inputs have political implications which cannot be neglected.
The Chinese market is the largest globally, which opens doors for Israeli capital, investments, and products. Especially with the investment and commercial opportunities arising with the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, accepting Israel as a founding member on June 29, 2015, and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, initiative “One Belt, One Road” introduced by the end of 2013. In this context, Hagai Shagrir, Director of North East Asia Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expects that this initiative will bring more infrastructure investment opportunities to Israeli companies. Shagrir points out that Israel considers itself part of the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century, which starts from the South Sea of China to the Mediterranean.
Israel may seek through developing their relations with China, to rein in military sales, especially missiles, to certain Arab countries. They perceive that some of the missiles reach the Lebanese Hezbollah, which threatens Israeli national security. Furthermore, Israel is clearly willing to mobilize Chinese support to combat what Israel calls the international terrorism, especially in the light of escalating problems between the Chinese government and Xinjiang Muslims (East Turkestan) in Western China (where approximately 21 million Muslims reside).
These problems escalated with the return of some fighters in ISIS groups from Syria and Iraq to conduct terrorist attacks in China. In addition, a large proportion of the Chinese population correlates Hamas to the turbulence in Xinjiang. Comments on social media in China show Arabs, and Palestinians specifically, as a “threat” due to sharing the same belief with Xinjiang inhabitants. On the other hand, Israelis assume the role of protector and supporter against what is called as “Islamic terrorism.”
2. Chinese Motivations:
China believes that Israel has a strategic geopolitical location, technological capacities, and scientific infrastructure which makes it a key player in the Middle East and a preferred partner in economic relations. Some Chinese decision-making circles want to use Israel as a gateway to extend its influence in the Middle East, especially with its rising importance and the decline of US intervention to achieve peace and stability in the region.
China seeks to utilize the Jewish lobby, AIPAC in the US specifically, and in the world generally, to manage their strained relations with Washington. The Chinese are aware of the Jewish Lobby’s large influence on American decision-making. Hence, developing Israeli relations will urge Tel Aviv to use AIPAC to take important decisions in favor of China in critical US institutions, especially in Congress. The state has also shown a vested interest in encouraging Jewish capital investment in the Chinese markets. Israel has a role in encouraging joint ventures between Jewish and Chinese capital.
Obstacles to Partnership
Undoubtedly, the first direct flight between Beijing and Tel Aviv constitutes a significant incident and a milestone towards strengthening China-Israel relations. However, this does not mean that the mutual relations will witness a major shift anytime soon. There are many obstacles to the growth of these relations, most importantly:
1. Increased opposition and reservations surrounding the development of strategic mutual relations. Various Israeli military and security leaders announced their reservation concerning the rush to build relations with a huge country, allied with states considered as enemies of the state, in reference to Arab countries and Iran.
These leaders have also warned that developing relations with the Chinese giant will agitate the Western allies of Israel generally, and the USA specifically. Efraim Halevy, Mossad Ex-Director, stated that he is concerned about the amount and type of projects with China. He added that this would harm the Strategic Policy of Israel, taking the Chinese company’s intervention in planning and implementing the railway line from Tel Aviv to Eilat as an example. He further pointed out the Chinese political, military, and security relations with Iran and all Arab states.
2. Beijing is totally aware that current cooperation with Israel would harm its relationships with major Arab states, especially with the radical stances of Netanyahu’s cabinet, which persists on proceeding with settlement building, the further annexation of land and Judaization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories through a fait accompli policy. The Chinese are also annoyed with the passive Israeli position of continuing commercial and military relations with Taiwan, as Israeli political and academic figures visited Taiwan and Israel’s receiving of the Dalai Lama.
To conclude, Chinese-Israeli relations are witnessing steady growth, reflected by the direct flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv. Current obstacles to these relations show that they can hardly reach the level of a “perfect partnership” aspired to by the Israeli Prime Minister. However, the Chinese can seize the opportunity of the 25th anniversary of launching diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 to review its policies towards Tel Aviv. China should ensure that economic and political cooperation with Israel should not come at the expense of the principles and manners embraced by China’s foreign relations, especially respecting International Law and peaceful conflict resolutions.
In other words, one hopes that the growth of Chinese-Israeli relations will not negatively impact peace in the Middle East. China is to play a larger role in supporting regional stability and urge the Israelis to maintain fair, comprehensive, and permanent peace, according to International Law and UN resolutions.
