(October 16, 2024) Israel is a small, beleaguered country in the Middle East, lacking resources, facing extreme drought, and surrounded by hostile environments. It was founded one year before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power, yet it has become one of the world's "highly developed" nations and is often called "the smallest superpower in the world."

Israel has only 4,000 square kilometers of arable land, which is about one-quarter of the size of Beijing, yet it manages to sustain a population of nearly 9 million. Though Israel’s population accounts for just one-thousandth of the global population, it is home to thousands of startups and company headquarters. Israel ranks third globally in the number of companies listed on NASDAQ; over 90% of its GDP is contributed by technology; for every 10,000 employees, more than 140 are tech professionals or engineers; and, on average, one out of every 1,844 Israelis is an entrepreneur.

Currently, Israel has at least 90 "unicorn" companies, which are startups valued at over $1 billion—more than the total number of unicorns across the entire European Union.

In 2023, Israel's average monthly income was 8,800 shekels, equivalent to 18,357.68 RMB, more than double the average income in first-tier Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Israel boasts a comprehensive social security system, a well-established democracy, and its citizens have long enjoyed fundamental human rights, such as freedom of belief and speech.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has shown goodwill toward the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1980s, even before Israel established diplomatic relations with the CCP, it provided considerable support. After formal diplomatic ties were established in 1992, Israel treated the CCP kindly in many areas, from which the CCP benefited greatly.

The CCP "Turns Against" Israel

However, by 2023, when Israel was struck by a sudden terrorist attack and the entire nation was engulfed in grief, the CCP effectively sided with the attackers, leaving the Israeli people to experience the cold and heartless nature of the CCP.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Hamas launched over 3,000 rockets at Israel within 20 minutes, while approximately 3,000 Hamas militants breached the separation wall and launched a terrorist attack on Jewish civilians. This attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,250 Israelis and foreigners, including children and women, and left thousands more injured. Over 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, including many women and children.

Israel quickly retaliated against Hamas' terrorist attack, and the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

The United States and its allies unanimously condemned Hamas' terrorist attack, expressing sympathy, concern, and support for the Israeli people. Their basic stance is: "Nothing can justify terrorism."

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s response was unexpected by the Israeli people.

  1. To date, the CCP has never condemned Hamas for its heinous terrorist attacks on Israeli women, children, and the elderly.
  2. When Israel retaliated against Hamas' terrorist attacks, the CCP called for an immediate ceasefire, effectively preventing Israel from punishing the terrorists.
  3. As Israel made significant progress in its operations to eliminate Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the CCP criticized Israel, claiming its actions in Gaza exceeded the scope of self-defense.
  4. The CCP equated Israel's retaliatory war against Hamas with the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, treating Hamas, which carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Israel’s Friendliness Toward the CCP

After wandering around the world for more than 1,000 years, the Jewish people finally established the state of Israel in their ancestral homeland in 1948. However, from the day after its founding, Israel was attacked by neighboring Arab countries in what became the First Arab-Israeli War. This was followed by the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Arab-Israeli Wars. Despite the conflicts, Israel has consistently shown goodwill toward China whenever possible.

Politically: On January 9, 1950, Israel officially recognized the People's Republic of China, becoming the first Middle Eastern country to do so. However, at the time, the CCP did not reciprocate. It wasn’t until 1992 that the CCP established diplomatic relations with Israel.

Militarily: Israel is the leading military power in the Middle East. During the modernization of the Chinese military, Israel provided significant assistance.

According to a report from the U.S. Congress' U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Israel has been a key supplier of complex military technology to the CCP. Tel Aviv provided equipment for the Chinese navy, including target intercept and fire control systems for YF-12A, YJ-62, and YJ-92 cruise missiles, radar systems, airborne radar, optical and communication equipment, drones, flight simulators, and tank thermal imaging systems.

The Chinese air force equipped its planes with Israel's Python-3 air-to-air missiles (1,500 units). The CCP later developed its own PL-8, PL-8I, PL-8II, and PL-9 air-to-air missiles based on this technology. Israel also assisted the CCP in developing the HQ-9/FT-2000 surface-to-air missile system.

In the 1990s, the CCP obtained classified information on the Lavi fighter jet from Israel and produced the J-10 fighter, which bears a striking resemblance to the Lavi.

Science and Technology: Israel is one of the world's most advanced and developed countries in agriculture. Israel has helped establish several key agricultural projects in China, such as the "China-Israel Demonstration Farm" in Beijing, the "China-Israel Demonstration Dairy Farm" in Beijing, the "China-Israel Arid Zone Agricultural Training Center" in Xinjiang, the "China-Israel International Agricultural Research and Training Center" in Beijing, the "China-Israel (Jiuquan) Green Ecological Industrial Park," and the "China-Israel (Yantai) Modern Agricultural Industrial Park."

Israel’s company Netafim introduced advanced drip irrigation technology and customized irrigation solutions to the water-scarce Ningxia region in China. Israel also brought desalination technology to China, participating in the largest desalination project in Tianjin in 2007.

Israel is a top global center for scientific research and innovation, having helped establish projects such as the "China-Israel Changzhou Innovation Park," the "China-Israel High-Tech Industrial Park" in Dalian, the "China-Israel International Technology Cooperation Industrial Park" in Dongguan, and the "China-Israel Shanghai Innovation Park."

According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, after the 2018 U.S.-China trade war, Israel’s semiconductor exports to China increased by 80%, reaching $2.6 billion.

Trade: In 2022, the bilateral trade volume between China and Israel was $25.45 billion. According to the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies' "China Connection" database, although Israel has not officially signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the largest number of Belt and Road projects in the Middle East are located in Israel.

Two of Israel’s largest strategic ports, Ashdod and Haifa’s new port, were constructed with participation from Chinese state-owned enterprises. Shanghai International Port Group was granted a 25-year concession to operate Haifa’s new port terminal. Haifa Port is a frequent docking site for the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet and hosts Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear capabilities.

Israel's Lesson in Friendliness Toward the CCP

Why has Israel been so friendly toward the CCP? There are two main reasons:

First, Israel has long been grateful to China for sheltering over 20,000 Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the 1930s.

On the eve of World War II, in March 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, the Nazis began implementing their plan to exterminate the Jewish people. The first step was to confiscate Jewish assets and expel them.

Nazi authorities notified Jewish people that if they could provide "immigration documents" in the form of visas for entry or final destination, they would be allowed to leave, and their detained family members would be released from concentration camps.

At that time, 32 Western countries refused to accept Jewish refugees, but one person, Fengshan Ho, the Chinese Consul General in Vienna under the Republic of China, extended a helping hand to the Jewish people.

On November 12, 1937, Japanese forces occupied Shanghai during their invasion of China, leaving Shanghai’s ports unattended, allowing anyone to enter without needing to present documents or passports. Fengshan Ho took advantage of this situation, issuing visas to over 3,000 Jewish people to travel to Shanghai. Thanks to these visas, they were able to escape the Nazis.

Fengshan Ho’s noble actions spread the news that Shanghai required no visa for entry, and by the end of 1938, another 18,000 Jewish refugees managed to escape to Shanghai.

It must be emphasized that the person who saved the Jewish people was Fengshan Ho, a diplomat from the Republic of China—not the CCP. The Jewish people were welcomed by the people of Shanghai and China, not by the CCP.

Looking at the history of the CCP, it was established under the control of "foreign hostile forces"—the Soviet Communist Party. The CCP is a foreign political party that considers foreign figures such as Marx and Lenin as its founders. It is a party that, through unscrupulous methods, overthrew the legitimate government of China, the Republic of China, and destroyed China’s 5,000-year-old divinely-inspired culture through actions such as atheism, the destruction of traditional values, and even grave desecration. From 1959 to 1962, it starved 36 million Chinese citizens to death. The CCP has also sold over 1 million square kilometers of Chinese territory to Russia and stripped Chinese citizens of their freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. It is a party that represents only a small group of CCP elites.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not synonymous with China, and the CCP does not represent the Chinese people. Israel should not feel even the slightest gratitude toward the CCP.

However, Israel has long failed to distinguish between the CCP and China, or between the CCP and the Chinese people. As a result, it mistakenly believed that the CCP represents China and its people, turning its gratitude toward China and the Chinese people into gratitude toward the CCP. This is a major lesson.

Second, Israel Lacked Understanding of the CCP as a Marxist-Leninist Party

The CCP is a party guided by Marxism-Leninism, which teaches that capitalism is inherently evil and that the Communist Party must oppose, defeat, and replace capitalism in order to "liberate" all humanity.

After the CCP came to power in 1949, it long fought against capitalism, led by the United States. At the time, Israel was part of the capitalist world, aligned with the U.S., and the CCP also opposed Israel.

This explains why in 1950, when Israel recognized the People's Republic of China, the CCP did not respond, and why in 1955, when Israel again expressed its willingness to establish diplomatic relations, the CCP refused. The same reason also explains why the CCP did not officially recognize Israel from the 1950s through the 1980s.

By 1976, after the Cultural Revolution had wreaked havoc for a decade, China was on the brink of collapse. To save itself, in December 1978, the CCP began implementing the "reform and opening-up" policy, seeking to improve relations with capitalist America. In 1979, the CCP established diplomatic ties with the U.S.

However, the CCP never fundamentally changed its view of capitalism as something to be opposed, defeated, and replaced. It merely sought to use capitalism’s technology, markets, talent, and services to escape its crisis and strengthen itself. Deng Xiaoping proposed the foreign policy of "hide your strength, bide your time," meaning the CCP would temporarily avoid asserting itself until it became strong enough.

By 2012, when Xi Jinping became the leader of the CCP, China had already become the world's second-largest economy. The CCP believed it had grown strong, becoming a "giant elephant," and resumed its old path of opposing, defeating, and replacing capitalism. It transformed Marx's idea of "liberating all humanity" into the goal of "building a community with a shared future for mankind."

Since the U.S.-China trade war in 2018, the CCP has been confronting the U.S. on all fronts—in Hong Kong, the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, the Indo-Pacific region, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Middle East conflict.

Today, Israel remains part of the capitalist world led by the United States, so the CCP inevitably views Israel as an adversary. This explains why, following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023, the CCP essentially sided with Hamas and turned against Israel.

Marxist-Leninist ideology dictates that the CCP will fight against anyone aligned with the U.S. and support anyone who opposes the U.S.

Therefore, no matter how the situation in the Middle East evolves, as long as Israel stands with the U.S., the CCP will inevitably oppose Israel.

For a long time, Israel failed to understand that the CCP is a Marxist-Leninist party and was deceived by the CCP’s sweet words and temptations. It mistakenly believed that being friendly toward the CCP would earn the CCP’s friendship in return, but it fell into a trap. This is yet another significant lesson.

Conclusion

On October 8, when asked by reporters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, "Israel’s legitimate security concerns should be taken seriously." Her remark surprised even the reporters present, who thought they had misheard. Had the CCP changed its stance on supporting Hamas?

Not at all. It was simply that Israel had already dealt a heavy blow to Hamas, and the CCP’s support for Hamas no longer held much practical significance.

The CCP can change its rhetoric at any time based on its own needs. However, the CCP’s overall anti-U.S. strategy in the Middle East will not change. As long as Israel stands with the U.S., the CCP’s fundamental opposition to Israel will not change.

Israel has already suffered a painful lesson in the Hamas terrorist attack. If Israel can learn from this experience, it should not fall for the CCP’s tricks again.

Editor: Gao Yi