For all the attention paid to America’s relationship with Israel and China’s relationship with Iran, the relationship between China and Israel receives surprisingly little attention in Washington.
It is also much harder to categorize. Beijing increasingly echoes Arab political positions and continues to support Tehran, yet China has substantial economic reasons to maintain a workable relationship with Israel. Chinese electric vehicles and consumer platforms have found a receptive market there, while Israeli capabilities in cybersecurity, AI, biomedical engineering and other advanced technologies remain attractive to Chinese companies and researchers. Israel, meanwhile, has little economic incentive to simply wall itself off from one of the world’s largest markets. The question is how long commercial pragmatism can remain separate from national security.
Lauren Barney joins Chelsea on the Potentia Podcast to discuss the history behind China’s relationship with Israel and Jewish communities, the shift from philosemitism toward more overt antisemitism on parts of Chinese social media, why Israel’s technology sector has become the central strategic question in the bilateral relationship, how Taiwan fits into the equation, and whether Israeli domestic politics could change Beijing’s calculus.
Tune in for this thoughtful interview, listen or watch! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
“There has to be nuance, and there has to be something that we can do, that not everything has to be nefarious, and that there could be a net positive. The question is: how can we create those positives without the dual-use negatives?” — Lauren Barney
Guest
Lauren Barney, Leading China-expert and former Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State. She was previously a Security Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy and a contractor at the State Department’s Office of China Coordination. The views expressed here are her own.
Carve-outs
Kaifeng Jews. China’s relationship with Jewish communities predates the modern Chinese state. Jewish communities can be traced from Kaifeng and Harbin through Shanghai, where thousands of European Jews found refuge during the Holocaust. That history helps explain why perceptions of Jews in China developed differently from many European traditions of antisemitism. The history of Jewish refugees in wartime Shanghai is well documented by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Philosemitism. Lauren describes encountering a distinctly Chinese form of philosemitism: stereotypes about Jewish intelligence, wealth and professional success framed as admiration rather than hostility. Since October 7, she has watched some of those same stereotypes reappear online in explicitly antisemitic forms, including conspiracy theories about Jewish control of finance and media. Researchers have separately documented antisemitic conspiracy narratives spreading through Chinese media and social platforms after October 7.
AliExpress. Geopolitics through the shopping cart. AliExpress and similar platforms demonstrate that China-Israel ties are also built through something much more ordinary: Israelis buying Chinese products because they are cheap, accessible and useful.
BYD. Chinese EVs and the security-versus-price problem. BYD offers a useful microcosm of the larger relationship. Chinese vehicles can be technologically competitive and comparatively inexpensive, making them attractive to Israeli consumers, while connected vehicles simultaneously raise questions about data, infrastructure and dependence on Chinese systems. Lauren sees the same basic tradeoff across the relationship: Israel wants affordable technology and market access but cannot treat every connected product as strategically neutral. Chinese automakers have already captured a substantial share of Israel’s EV market.
The Jerusalem Post and Taiwan. Lauren points to an Israeli article on Taiwan and the Chinese response that followed as a small example of a much larger pattern. An ordinary op-ed becomes a diplomatic event, showing how closely Beijing watches Taiwan narratives even in countries that would prefer to keep the issue peripheral.
Key points
Technology is the real pressure point: Israel possesses capabilities China wants in cybersecurity, AI, biomedical engineering and other advanced sectors, but many of those technologies are difficult to separate cleanly into civilian and security applications.
Israel faces the same China dilemma as many U.S. allies: Chinese products and market access can carry real economic advantages. The practical question is not whether Israel can eliminate its China relationship, but where it draws boundaries around infrastructure, data and strategic technology.
Taiwan exposes the limits of the relationship: Israel has strong incentives to avoid challenging Beijing directly, but its democratic system, technology ecosystem and security experience create areas of natural affinity with Taiwan that China watches closely.
A change in Israeli leadership may alter emphasis more than strategy: Lauren sees real uncertainty around Israeli domestic politics, but expects China’s broader approach toward Israel to remain relatively consistent regardless of who occupies the prime minister’s office.
Links
Lauren’s upcoming article on the topic!! Stay posted for update
China’s Do-Nothing Strategy in the Middle East: Beijing Needs a Safe Red Sea—but Wants Washington to Deliver It - Lauren’s Foreign Affairs feature
German and Austrian Jewish Refugees in Shanghai — U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Chinese Narratives on the Israel-Hamas War — Brookings Institution
Proceed with Caution: Israeli Research Collaboration with China — Institute for National Security Studies
China’s Embassy in Israel Responds to the Taiwan Debate — The Jerusalem Post
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