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August 19, 2021 12:41 pm
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CIA Director Raised Issue of Chinese Investment in Israel During Meeting With Bennett: Report

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avatar by Benjamin Kerstein

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), testifies during his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 24, 2021. Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS

During a visit to Israel last week, CIA Director Bill Burns raised serious concerns about Chinese investment in Israel to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Axios reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Israeli officials.

The question of Israel-China relations and growing Chinese economic influence in Israel has become more pressing in recent years, as America increasingly sees China less as an economic partner and more as a major geopolitical adversary.

High-profile partnerships between Israel and China include a light rail system in Tel Aviv and the Haifa Port project, which became a rare source of tension between the Trump Administration and Israel, while other efforts have been less public.

Burns’ discussion of the issue with Bennett marked the first time it has been raised at such a high level, and unlike his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu — who tended to resist American pressure on the issue — Bennett was reportedly sympathetic to US concerns.

An unnamed senior Israeli official said, “In recent months, we started a dialogue with the Biden administration on China. The US asked about specific projects like the Chinese involvement in the Tel Aviv metro.”

“We told the Americans we welcome US infrastructure companies to work on big projects in Israel, but they don’t apply to the tenders,” the official said.

Israel believes the issue of Israel-China economic cooperation will continue to be raised in discussions with the White House.

Burns is not the first high-ranking US official to raise the China issue with Israel. In April, Daniel Shapiro, a former US Ambassador to Israel, argued that there is a growing US sense that China is seeking to use other countries’ innovative technologies for its own “repressive and aggressive” purposes, like surveillance.

“There has been an increasing US expectation that allies like Israel will take these US concerns into account even if that means limiting certain opportunities,” he said during a conference panel. “That started really to play out during the Trump administration.”

“The Biden administration still has work to do to establish a comprehensive set of its own rules and a comprehensive set of alternatives for allies like Israel who forego cooperation with China,” Shapiro added.

In February, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) issued a report saying that Israel has become a “target of China’s geo-economic exploitation,” advocating a joint strategy with the US on the issue.

Blaise Misztal, Vice President for Policy at JINSA, told The Algemeiner that China “could be silently driving a wedge” between Israel and the US and “slowly, without either noticing or seemingly doing anything to cause [it], the US and Israel could find themselves at odds.”

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