Is Change in the Air?

The 77-year-old relationship between Israel, created in 1948, and the People’s Republic of China, created in 1949, can be seen as a series of continuous “ups and downs.” A period of improved relations is generally followed by years of deterioration, often triggered by external factors, which are again followed by years of improvement, and so on. The years following 2019/20 were a period of severe deterioration. Is this period coming to an end? Is change in the air?

Since late 2024, China has taken small diplomatic steps to improve its shattered relations with Israel. There were hints in Chinese media that this was China’s intention. On November 29, 2024, China’s ambassador to Israel used the country’s most widely read newspaper to argue for “taking a long view…for a new chapter.”⁵⁷ Prof. Yitzhak Shichor, drawing on his long experience of China-Israel relations, commented positively.⁵⁸ On May 10, 2025, the Ambassador continued his charm offensive to the Israeli public with a TV interview and later on with additional public appearances. Surprisingly, he condemned the Hamas “atrocities” of October 7 as “inhuman” and “outrageous.” This was a first for a Chinese official, but in Beijing no media reported his words. The ambassador also said that Iran’s possibly building a nuclear weapon would be unacceptable to China, yet four days later (May 14, 2025), the China Daily officially welcomed the “already demonstrated peaceful nature” of Iran’s nuclear program and attacked America’s “illegal unilateral sanctions on Iran.” A fundamental gap separates China’s official discourse on the Middle East conflict addressed to a global audience and completely aligned with Israel’s enemies, and China’s appeasing words just for Israel. Beijing’s obfuscations are meant to allow China to pursue contradictory goals, by balancing between opponents and asserting to have only friends and no enemies. But balancing will not suffice to cope with the Middle East’s hard realities and will not turn China into a credible peace maker. It has not reversed China’s recent antisemitic trends.

Parallel to China’s media, some of Israel’s media too are publishing articles hoping for greater Chinese interest in Israel. “China’s Israel pivot,” promises one, and asks “is China waking up to Israel’s strategic importance?”⁵⁹ China’s overriding strategic priority linked to the Middle East are approximately 50 Muslim majority states which are part of the 125 Global South countries that China wants to lead. As long as Israel is stuck in its internal and external crises, China will likely wait and avoid being seen “waking up” to Israel’s importance.