"...if I do business with you, no-one else has the right to interfere."
Chinese ambassador to Israel Chen Yonglong has condemned the efforts by the US to choke off trade in arms between Israel and China. He said the two countries had joined together in a strategic partnership that would break into a more glorious dawn. This is one of the most enthusiastic statements about Israel ever made by China.
October 2001:
-At first sight, it is difficult to imagine two nations more different to each other than China and Israel. China is four hundred times Israel's size and two hundred times its population. One is the heart of Asia; the other a bridge between West and East. However, China and Israel have many characteristics in common. Here follow seven similarities.
The principal trait is their long history. Both nations span at least four millennia, being the nations on earth who claim such continuous national identity.
Secondly, these long national identities were recently redefined, almost simultaneously: modern Israel in 1948, modern China in 1949. In both countries national minorities constitute roughly 10% of the population.
Thirdly, their national religions (Confucianism and Judaism) are more based upon deed than dogma, much more evolved around behaviour than belief. The maxim "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you" is essential to both civilizations, Jewish and Chinese, as well as the principle that human nature is basically good. In neither civilization does theology play a major role. One century ago, Wu Ting Fang, a Chinese stateman, stated: "There is a resemblance between Confucius and Moses –in their doctrines and in their way of teaching and of moulding the character of their two respective peoples. The most striking agreement is the importance of honoring one's parents." Moreover both religions are strictly non-missionary and tolerant towards the outside world. They do not have as a practical aim to convert the world to Confucianism or Judaism.
In the fourth place, in a world that favors Western languages, both China and Israel are proudly loyal to their respective ancient tongues and their unique alphabets. The renovation of biblical Hebrew in modern times has a parallel in China's simplification of ancient Mandarin.
The fifth similarity: both Jews and Chinese have a long history of suffering and persecution. Their losses during the Second World War brought their tragedy to a nadir, and both the Holocaust and the Rape of Nanjing remain as a blemish in mankind's consciousness. During the war, Liu Shih-Shun, a Chinese academician and Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated: "Like the Jews, the Chinese have a cultural heritage of thousands of years. Like the children of Israel, my countrymen are scattered over the four corners of earth. Like your people, my people know the meaning of hardship and, for this reason, they are able to carry on a prolonged war of resistance without the material things that are considered essential in other parts of the world." It should be noted that China is frequently mentioned as the only country in the world where there was never any expression of Judeophobia, that was so characteristic of European history. In March 2001 there was a ceremony at Yad Vashem, to honor Feng Shan Ho, the Chinese Consul in Vienna between 1938 and 1940, who distributed hundreds of Chinese visas to save Jews from the Nazi regime.
In the sixth place, they both had a major influence in human civilization, in its culture, literature, and sciences. World history is inimaginable without either the Chinese or the Jews.
There is a further common trait that is more modern. Both China and Israel started a process of modernization of their economy. The models upon which Mao Zedong and Ben-Gurion conceived the economy was state-oriented, while the more recent leaders of both countries launched a campaign to open their economies to the free market. Having all these in mind, one can conclude that bridges between China and Israel are natural and desirable, and should be built for their mutual benefit. While they do not share a regional group, they belong to the tiny group of Ancient Civilizations recently revived, of hard-working creative peoples who have made major contributions to mankind.
As Wu Ting Fang put it: "The Chinese and the Jews have always been friends and not enemies. Both have been persecuted and despised… The Jews and Chinese are despised not on account of their vices… but on account of their virtues, on account of their industry, economy, perseverance, thrift".
Bridges Between China and Israel
Gustavo Perednik/Hagshama
January 2006:
-King Abdullah has begun the first ever state visit to China by a Saudi leader, expected to focus on boosting co-operation to fuel China's soaring energy needs.
The visit marks the first part of an Asian tour that will take him on to India, Malaysia and Pakistan.
During his three-day stay in China, Abdullah is scheduled to meet President Hu Jintao on Monday and Wu Bangguo, the No 2 Communist Party leader, and Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, on Tuesday.
Kong Quan, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, said on Thursday that the two sides were expected to discuss energy co-operation, anti-terrorism, politics, economics, culture, health and telecommunications.
He gave no information about possible energy deals to be signed.
[..]
Some observers believe that the Chinese need for new oil supplies could lead to a stand-off with the United States over access to Middle Eastern oil.
Al Jazeera/Liberty Post 22.Jan.06
December 2004:
-Israel's Channel Two television reported on 15 December that Feith had demanded the resignation of retired Maj. Gen. Amos Yaron, the widely respected and longtime director-general of Israel's MoD. According to the reports, Feith was 'outraged' that he was not informed the UAV sale to China few years ago, and demanded the resignation of retired Maj. Gen. Amos Yaron, the widely respected and long-time director-general of Israel's MoD.
This is also the first time that the existence of such a deal between China and Israel is confirmed. China reportedly acquired some unknown number of the Israeli Aerospace Industry (IAI)'s Harpy Attack UAV in 1994. In summer 2004 some of these UAVs were sent back to Israel to be upgraded for better performance. The Pentagon has already demanded that Israel not to deliver these UAVs to China, even though they are properties of the PRC.
Harpy is the armed UAV developed by IAI in the 1990s. It is a unique weapon system with features of both UAV and cruise missile. Launched from a ground vehicle or surface warship far away from the battle zone, the Harpy UAV can detect, attack and destroy radar emitters in all-weather conditions, day/night over a distance of 500kg. Once an enemy radar is detected and verified, the UAV transitions into a near vertical dive and destroy the target with its high explosive warhead.
Chinese Defence Today 25.Dec.04
May 2002:
-The real danger comes in Israel's habit of reverse engineering U.S. technology and selling to nations hostile to U.S. interests. Israel's client list includes Cambodia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the South Lebanon Army, India, China, Burma and Zambia. The U.S. has most recently warmed up to India and is now in fact competing with Israel for arms sales there, but the other Israeli customers remain dubious at best.
Perhaps the most troubling of all is the Israeli/Chinese arms relationship. Israel is China's second largest supplier of arms. Coincidentally, the newest addition to the Chinese air force, the F-10 multi-role fighter, is an almost identical version of the Lavi (Lion). The Lavi was a joint Israeli-American design based upon the F-16 for manufacture in Israel, but financed mostly with American aid. Plagued by cost overruns, it was canceled in 1987, but not before the U.S. spent $1.5 billion on the project.
Last April, when the Navy EP-3E surveillance plane was forced to land in China after a Chinese F-8 fighter flew into its propeller, photos show Israeli built Python 3 missiles under the fighter's wings.
If Israeli weapons sales to China induce misgivings, including the most recent U.S. blocked sale of Israel's Phalcon airborne radar, the beneficiaries of Chinese arms transfers of Israeli-American technology are even more disturbing. In 1996, as disclosed in the UN Register of Conventional Arms, China sold over 100 missiles and launchers to Iran, along with a handful of combat aircraft and warships. Even worse, in 1997 the New York Daily News reported that Iraq had deployed Israeli-developed, Chinese PL-8 missiles in the no-fly zones, endangering American pilots.
Americans deserve to know where their money is being spent, and how money allocated for friends and technology shared with friends can all too easily end up in the wrong hands, threatening all parties involved.
Jonathan Reingold/CommonDreams 09.May.02
April 2005:
China hopes to double its trade with Israel over the next three years, from nearly $2.5 billion registered in 2004 to $5 billion or more by 2008, according to Beijing's top diplomat here, who declined to discuss specifics of the two countries' defense trade.
In an April 7 lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ambassador Chen Yonglong noted that Sino-Israeli trade is growing at an annual rate of some 40 percent.
When asked specifically about bilateral defense trade ties, however — and about U.S. claims that Israel is Beijing's second largest supplier of arms and military technology after Russia — Chen demurred from providing additional data. He insisted, however, that China does not constitute a military threat to the United States, and that pressure from Washington to trample Sino-Israeli defense trade is unjustified.
"In principle, if I do business with you, I don't think others should interfere," Chen said.
Intense U.S. government pressure — coupled with veiled threats to curtail the more than $2 billion that Israel receives each year in U.S. military aid — forced Israel to cancel in May 2000 a signed and legally binding contract with China for the sale of aerial early warning aircraft. Israel suffered heavy monetary and political penalties as a result of the contract violation.
Barbara Opall-Rome/Defense News 08.Apr.05
