Robert David

Abstract: China is tiptoeing on a skinny line between global diplomacy and strategic duplicity. In its high-tech and often enigmatic handling of Israel, China has been unmasked as a crypto-Zionist force—quietly promoting Tel Aviv's militarized and technocratic agenda, not for ideological sympathy, but as a clever wedge against the West. Israel burns the candle at both ends, with China acting as apologist/sycophant to Gaza/West Bank Genocide

This article contends that Beijing's proximity to Israel serves as an asymmetrical counterweight to NATO and America, through surveillance technology, AI, and infrastructure as instruments of strategic intelligence and political destabilization. Far from a cliche, this thesis explores Sino-Israeli collaboration within the context of geotechnology, economic penetration, and silent complicity in atrocities—from Gaza to virtual space. This bargain is an account of China's welcoming, if covert, arms open wide to Israel as sword and shield in a hidden techno-political surrogate war.

An exegesis of modern empire through the lens of infrastructure, memory, prophecy, and betrayal. It shows how China’s embrace of Israel is not reluctant, nor merely transactional—but deeply entwined in a global pattern of digital dominion.

In the intricate web of 21st-century geopolitics, the strategic alliance between the State of Israel and the People's Republic of China is a testament to the convergence of historical cultures and modern strategic interests. This partnership, far from being a mere collaboration, has significant strategic implications. It has evolved into a highly nuanced relationship encompassing infrastructure development, technological collaboration, and behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuvers. This article delves into great detail in mapping the evolution of Sino-Israeli relations, examining the mutually reinforcing patterns that have transformed Israel into one of China's most trusted allies in the Middle East—and now, a front-line node in Beijing's techno-strategic network aimed at being a counter-hegemonic force to U.S. dominance.

Historical Roots: From Secret Operations to Diplomatic Engagement

The roots of China-Israel relations can be traced back to the late 20th century, a period marked by secret military cooperation. In the 1980s, Israel, seeking to diversify its defense exports, conducted secret arms sales to China, providing technologies—such as avionics and radar systems—that would later form the basis of China's military modernization drive. These clandestine deals, including selling the Python air-to-air missile system, laid the foundation for complete diplomatic ties, established formally in 1992.

The post-Cold War era saw both nations find mutual benefits: Israel's Silicon Wadi had a treasure trove of technological capability, and China's stunning economic emergence had a lucrative market and strategic ally. This meeting set the stage for a series of cooperative ventures, laying the ground for deeper economic and infrastructural integration.

Infrastructure Collaborations: Building Bridges and Railways

Tel Aviv Light Rail: A Testimony to Sino-Israeli Cooperation

The Tel Aviv Light Rail is one of the most iconic projects representing Sino-Israeli cooperation. Chinese state-owned companies, particularly the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), have played a key role in building the Red Line to ease urban traffic and upgrade Israel's transport system.

Apart from simple construction, this alliance has made technology transfers, employed Israelis, and highlighted China's backing of Israel's infrastructural ambitions. But behind the gloss is a strategic issue: Are these state-owned firms simply building roads or installing digital backdoors within the fabric of Israeli urban logistics?

Haifa Port: Navigating Strategic Waters

China's footprint in Israeli maritime infrastructure is best exemplified by the Shanghai International Port Group's (SIPG) 25-year concession to operate the Haifa Bayport terminal. This strategic foray enhances trade connectivity between Asia and the Mediterranean and places Israel in China's far-reaching Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The Haifa Port project, however, has raised significant geopolitical concerns. Situated adjacent to a U.S. Sixth Fleet naval base, it has sparked suspicions that China could use the port to monitor U.S. naval activities, either actively or passively, through infrastructure mapping. Critics within the Pentagon have raised red flags, labeling the decision as a Trojan Horse strategy disguised as a port logistics initiative.

Economic Relations: A Flourishing Bilateral Trade Framework

China has become Israel's second-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade reaching approximately $24.45 billion 2022. Israel exports high-tech products like semiconductors, surveillance drones, medical devices, and precision agricultural technologies to China and imports machinery, electronics, and consumer goods.

Unrelenting Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, initiated in 2016, aim to further de-embed trade constraints, encouraging heightened economic interdependence. Both nations remain determined to finalize the agreement despite intermittent lulls—most often due to American pressure. The subtext here is that China views Israel not only as a trade partner but also as a gateway to Western technology clusters.

Technological and Academic Collaborations: Conjoining Minds Across Continents

Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT)

Another mainstay of Sino-Israeli academic collaboration is the establishment of the Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in Shantou, China. This collaboration between the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and Shantou University, funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation, aims to foster innovation in fields such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and environmental engineering.

The Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) symbolizes cross-cultural academic collaboration. However, it also serves as a potential conduit for covertly transferring sensitive Israeli technological research into the vast reservoirs of Chinese state knowledge. In an era marked by intellectual property espionage, such academic partnerships walk a fine line between cooperation and potential exploitation.

Research Collaborations and Innovation Centers

Beyond the academic circle, Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Huawei have established research centers in Israel, taking advantage of their vibrant startup culture. The partnerships span fields like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and big data analysis. Interestingly, some Israeli firms that cooperate with Chinese tech conglomerates are subcontractors for Unit 8200, which brings dual-use R&D activities of global surveillance interest.

Defense and Security: A Multifaceted Fabric

Israel's defense relations with China are multifaceted, involving both cooperation and contestation. From the 1980s through the 1990s, Israel supplied China with military technology, including missile systems, avionics to guide missiles, and encrypted communication systems, contributing to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) modernization.

However, U.S. technology transfer issues have consistently strained this aspect of the two countries' bilateral relations. For instance, the U.S. blocked the sale of the Phalcon early warning airborne system to China, citing security concerns.

Despite all the challenges, both countries persist in seeking ways to collaborate on defense matters, usually under the cover of civilian technologies with military implications. This dichotomy highlights a common thread: Sino-Israeli defense cooperation tends to occur behind the scenes, through backdoors and proxies.

Diplomatic Encounters: Charting a Multipolar World

China's reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has also evolved. While historically aligned with the Palestinian cause, Beijing has adopted a more transactional and pragmatic line in recent years—calling for peaceful resolutions even as it further deepened its relations with both Israel and Arab states. Such a diplomatic stance mirrors China's broader strategy of non-interference, subtly calibrated to protect economic interests across the Middle East.

Yet China's muted response to recent battles—most importantly, the 2023 Israel-Hamas war and ongoing operations in Gaza and the West Bank—has been widely criticized. Chinese leaders have consistently avoided direct criticism, instead releasing statements calling for "dialogue," a line interpreted by most as a de facto approval of Israeli military endeavors. In that regard, Beijing is a tacit enabler of occupation and apartheid, placing access to technology over human rights.

Intelligence Convergence Between China and Israel

Despite their divergent political systems and security concerns, China and Israel have established a pragmatic intelligence partnership based on technological cooperation and surveillance systems. Israel's intelligence services—Mossad, Shin Bet, and Unit 8200—have long been renowned for their expertise in cyber-spying and surveillance technologies. China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) and other concerned departments have been interested in Israeli technologies, which has created concerns about the potential for espionage operations.

Chinese intelligence operations in Israel are reported to aim at acquiring access to U.S. military and technical intelligence through Israel's good relations with Washington. China's relocation of its embassy near Israeli intelligence centers has been the subject of espionage rumors. Chinese investments in Israeli cyber startups with connections to former Unit 8200 personnel suggest a greater game of strategy: penetration by acquisition.

Though full-time military cooperation between Israel and China remains modest, their surveillance technology and AI collaboration has continued to rise steadily. Dual-use technologies such as facial recognition tools, predictive policing software, and platforms for spyware espionage

are being sold to Chinese security apparatuses by Israeli firms. Those technologies reportedly target Xinjiang and other locations, linking Israel indirectly to China's surveillance authoritarianism.

Toward a Geostrategic Reckoning

The Sino-Israeli relationship, though disguised as trade and innovation, rests, in fact, on realpolitik and surveillance capitalism. China's adoption of Israel is not a diplomatic oddity but a calculated move: a proxy war by other means. By becoming involved in Israel's tech-military complex, China gains access to NATO-adjacent technologies, conducts cyber-espionage by proxy, and becomes a silent backdoor into Western infrastructure.

This conjunction—of Chinese state policy and Zionist technological hegemony—produces a techno-authoritarian axis, one that militarizes information, crushes resistance, and turns global conflict into laboratories of domination. In enabling and profiting from Israeli impunity in Gaza and the West Bank, China is more than a trading partner; it has become a geopolitical enabler.

It is no longer adequate to view this alignment as benign diplomacy. With Beijing securing its strategic borders through Tel Aviv, the world must reconcile with a grim reality: Sino-Zionist alignment is not simply a commercial agreement—it is the algorithmic underpinnings of a new world order.

The Fuchsian Bargain: A Pact of Mutual Muteness Between Beijing and Tel Aviv

In geopolitics' fragile theater, silence is rarely golden—it is bought and sold. When traded between great powers and their proxies, Taciturnity is more valuable than gold reserves or cybersecurity patents. The new entente between Xi Jinping's techno-authoritarian leviathan and Netanyahu's hyper-militarized ethno-state is not characterized by contracts and cranes but by an active, ear-splitting discretion. Both parties agree to remain quiet about each other's transgressions in a Faustian-Fuchsian handshake. The deals are silent but extended in policy and press releases.

You will not mention my Uyghur reeducation camps, Beijing appears to be saying, and I won't mention a word about your precision-guided pogroms in Rafah, Khan Younis, and the West Bank. In diplomatic shadowlands, this is the price of admission: moral relativism disguised as non-interference, a policy that equips omission as an instrument.

What is left is not neutrality but strategic complicity. It is algorithmic cleansing of genocide in trade treaties, UN abstentions, and burial of bodies under beltway euphemisms. When Chinese surveillance giants like Hikvision and Dahua merge data structures with Israeli facial recognition platforms—tested first in Hebron and honed in Xinjiang—the architecture of oppression is no longer nationalist. It is transnational, post-ethical, and corporatized.

This NATO/U.S./Sino-Israel is not diplomacy; it is non-denunciation-as-diplomacy, a Fuchsian maneuver in which both sides indulge in mutual absolution. Beijing is awarded Israeli quiet as it casts its Orwellian net across its western border. Tel Aviv is rewarded with China's veto of condemnation while it destroys Gaza hospitals and schools with U.S.-funded missiles and AI-guided programs such as Project Lavender.

Both governments posture as technology vanguards—startup nation and surveillance state—but what holds them together is not innovation. It is the reciprocal exemption from responsibility, codified in soft power, backed in export deals, and sanctified by think tanks and analysts too cowed—or corrupted—to observe the obvious: these are not exceptions to the global order.

They are its master plan.

The Pax Algorithmica

China's Foreign Minister Cao's so-called "strategic hug" of Israel is not a warm hug—it is a geopolitics gripping hook linking both nations in a shared pursuit of technocratic dominion. This alliance transcends trade statistics and infrastructure developments. It is the emergence of a new type of power—Pax Algorithmica—where algorithmic superiority replaces traditional notions of soft and hard power, and where sovereignty is increasingly defined in terms of who controls the data and the surveillance networks.

Here in the digital crucible, Israel provides China experimental proof-of-concept for algorithmic rule as perpetual exception—Xinjiang as scaled version, Gaza as beta-test land. Israel gains China's giant market, UN Security Council influence, and silent partner in moral absolution. The world beyond acquires a parable in silence: genocide is negotiable if encrypted.

And so, the mask drops. The East and West Leviathans of technocracy converge, not on ideology, but on praxis—praxis of repression, commodification of protest, and mutual indemnity by silence. What the Western liberal world once condemned as dystopian now invests with venture capital. What Beijing once condemned as Zionist aggression now cheers in shareholder niceties.

This is not multipolarity. This is reflected authoritarianism—an echo chamber where all the wails of Gaza are muffled by a Shantou server farm, and all the silences of the Uyghurs are bought with an Israeli defense contract.

Where the 20th century was a century of war for land, the 21st century is a century of war over truth, fought beneath the cloak of fiber-optic cables and seaborne commerce routes, run through spy software programs and algorithms. Israel and China are not outliers; they are models.

It is therefore crucial to journalists, academics, and decent citizens across the globe, not to treat this association as some diplomatic deviation or sugary business deal. It is the skeleton key to our algorithmic servitude, the invisible handshake to digital apartheid and technocratic despotism. And as with all clandestine pacts, it thrives in darkness. It is time to shine a searing, unflinching light on it.

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© 2025 Robert David

China's Strategic Hug of Israel: A New Cold War, and the Geopolitics of a "Great Old Friend"

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