ABSTRACT
China–Israel cat-and-mouth play began in January 1950 – when Israel became the first Middle Eastern country (and the seventh in the non-Communist world) to recognize China – and is still going on. This play involved three stages. In the first 30 years, the period of no relations, Israel’s attempts to form diplomatic relations were rejected by China, also discouraged by the US, the Soviet Union and the Arab and Muslim countries. China–Israel informal relations began in the late 1979s when Israel began selling upgraded Soviet arms and military technology to China – on behalf of the US. By the late 1980s, the two countries already held occasional meetings at the UN and initial exchanges including unofficial missions. These led to the establishment of official relations in January 1992, thereby introducing the third stage. Since then, Sino–Israeli relations have expanded dramatically, primarily in economics, but also in culture, science and technology. Moreover, relations with China have driven many other Asian countries to form relations with Israel, which tripled within two years. At the same time, Beijing continued to identify with the Arabs and the Palestinians, and the US forced Israel to stop arms sales to China and criticized Israel for accepting Chinese investments, allegedly harmful to US security.
