China’s Deepening Interest in Israel

Ties between Jerusalem and Beijing have never been this strong.

Aryeh Tepper   

Director of Publications and Online Educational Programming, American Sephardi Federation; Academic Director, Glazer-BGU Israel Studies Seminar for Chinese Students

The Tower -  Issue 30 September 2015

With its deepening investment in the Chinese economy, Israel has been watching closely as Shanghai’s stock market enters what appears to be meltdown mode. Indeed, people around the world are wondering if the “Chinese Dream” is turning into a nightmare.  The answer is: Not really. And Israel, in particular, doesn’t have much to worry about. This painful but inevitable correction in Chinese markets is unlikely to have serious effects on Israel’s burgeoning relationship with China. While Israel’s economic ties with Beijing are growing rapidly, Israel isn’t overly exposed to China’s troubles. More importantly, as The Economist noted, “Chinese stocks and economic growth have long had little to do with each other.” For example, while the Shanghai stock market was performing poorly from 2010-2014, China’s economy was the fastest-growing in the world. Goldman Sachs projects that China’s economy will overtake America’s as the biggest in the world in a little more than ten years.

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