Benjamin Netanyahu with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at an official welcoming ceremony. Photo: Israel GPO.

JNS.org – Tel Aviv University (TAU) has announced that it is partnering with Beijing’s Tsinghua University. The universities will invest $300 million to establish the XIN Research Center for the biotech, solar energy, water, and environmental technology industries.

China is interested in having Israeli technology “upgrade” its society, Shangyan Fen—a managing director for Catalyst-CEL, a joint Israeli-Chinese investment fund helping Israeli companies bring their products to the Chinese market—told the Times of Israel.

“This center will open new horizons for Israeli society,” said TAU President Prof. Joseph Klafter, who will sign an agreement with Chinese officials next Tuesday to establish the research center.

The agreement is just one event in a week that has by now been dubbed “China Week” in the Israeli high-tech industry. More than 400 Chinese officials arrived in Israel this week for a series of conferences and seminars, including the Tel Aviv MIXiii 2014 conference.