“Innovative Comprehensive Partnership”: Sino-Israeli Relations in the Fields of Economy and Security

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the current state of Sino-Israeli relations which two nations describe as the Innovative Comprehensive Partnership. The relevance of the topic under the consideration stems from two primary factors – the growing importance of China in the international arena and the implementation of Belt and Road Initiative amid growing tension between the US and China. The research focuses on the economic realm of Sino-Israeli relations as well as security and cyber-security cooperation. The paper met these twin research aims through an extensive study of relevant materials in English, Russian, Hebrew, and Chinese and the implementation of econometric research. The analysis shows that Sino-Israeli relations are exposed to global factors in the world arena. However, it is Washington’s stance that has large impact on Israel’s and China’s foreign policy strategies. What is more, the US factor influences indirectly the nature of bilateral relations through the US policy in the Eurasian continent. The research produced a number of findings: the econometric estimates obtained suggest that despite the US influence trade relations and economic cooperation between China and Israel are relatively stable. On the other hand, the political cooperation between China and Israel can be compared to the pendulum as it is determined by Israeli-American and Sino-American relations as well as Washington’s policy in the respective regions. The study also found that in the medium-term Sino-Israeli cooperation is likely to focus primarily on trade and economic spheres. At the same time, the article concludes that the economic realm is still heavily influenced by a number of factors such as the rise of protectionism in the world economic system, Sino-American trade war and the growing concerns within Israel due to increasing role of China in Israel’s economy.