President Trump must warn Israel that its rapidly growing economic relationship with China must not come at the expense of U.S. security and intellectual property interests.
While Israel-China trade has increased dramatically in recent years, its scale now poses a challenge to U.S. interests. As the BBC reports, Chinese investment in Israel is now likely to reach more than $15 billion annually and encompasses a wide range of high-tech companies.
While there’s nothing wrong with that trade on paper, China’s investments here are not ultimately rooted in economics. They are rooted in gaining access to and proprietary rights over the most cutting-edge technology software and hardware coming out of Israeli design laboratories and factories. And they are focused on those things because China wants to challenge the U.S. in its leadership and structuring of the global order.
On the Israeli side, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s already beleaguered government desperate to boost exports, China offers many answers and few problems. After all, where the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific allies face Chinese territorial aggression, unfair trading practices and intellectual property theft, Israel faces few similar concerns. On the contrary, Israeli dealings earn a more favorable Chinese hand on the international diplomatic stage. And that’s even before considering the thousands of Israeli jobs and ongoing research projects Chinese investments support.
But for the U.S., the interests are divergent. As China’s military modernization program continues apace, Beijing is integrating high-quality surveillance and targeting software into its defense portfolio. And while China can steal some of this material from the U.S. and European nations and also buy elements from European nations, it cannot get all that it needs. Israel’s array of boutique cyber and machine/machine parts are the answer to strengthening China’s military gaps.
Be under no illusions: China intends to use these capabilities to marginalize U.S. influence and interests. Trump’s action is needed now.
If Israel continues its laissez-faire approach to dealing with China, Beijing’s reach into high-tech Israeli industries will only grow. And as the reach grows, so goes Chinese money in the Israeli economy. In turn, Israeli politicians will follow their feudal European counterparts and increasingly defer to China’s global interests on matters such as its island construction campaign. With time, unchallenged by the U.S., Israel will have little reason to prevent U.S. technologies from falling into Chinese hands. And if China gets access to software or capabilities like the F-35 fighter jet, it will be able to develop means of negating those capabilities. That means a major undercutting of U.S. military capability.
Trump should thus be clear with Netanyahu. He should welcome Israeli prosperity while noting that it cannot come at the cost of exigent U.S. interests. If Netanyahu was honest in his recent statement that Israel is America’s best friend, he’ll listen and introduce new safeguards on Chinese investment. If not, Trump must reassess U.S. technology sharing with Israel.
