Recently, an article published in The Jerusalem Post smeared China’s Middle East policy and hyped up false narratives on Taiwan and Xinjiang-related issues, attempting to mislead the Israeli public’s perception of China and undermine the friendly relations between our two countries. Such intentions are utterly egregious. I would like to take this opportunity to present the facts to our Israeli friends for a better understanding of China and China-Israel relations.
Over the past 30-plus years since establishing diplomatic ties, China-Israel relations have maintained healthy and stable development, yielding fruitful outcomes across various fields. Facts demonstrate that our cooperation features complementary advantages and strong endogenous momentum, delivering mutual benefits to both nations and peoples.
China has always been committed to advancing exchanges and cooperation in various fields. Amid conflicts, nearly 20,000 Chinese workers have stayed in their posts in Israel.
Hainan Airlines of China has kept direct flights operational and is going to resume the Beijing-Tel Aviv route on April 10. The new port of Haifa, operated by Chinese enterprises, functions efficiently. The Red Line of the Tel Aviv Light Rail has operated safely for over 500 days, and the Green Line project progresses steadily. Transportation Minister Miri Regev highly commended Chinese companies for overcoming challenges to deliver high-quality results.
During the meeting on February 15 between the Chinese and Israeli foreign ministers, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar thanked the Chinese people for sheltering Jewish refugees during World War II and Chinese workers for contributing to Israel’s development despite wartime difficulties. He reaffirmed Israel’s commitment to the one-China policy and willingness to maintain dialogue and cooperation across fields.
China also stands ready to work with Israel to advance our comprehensive innovative partnership and promote regional peace, stability, and prosperity.
While having different perspectives on Palestine-Israel issues, China always respects Israel’s right to existence and development. Guided by the vision of building a global community of shared future and shared human values, we sincerely hope for peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.
China has consistently opposed violence against civilians and violations of international humanitarian law, calling for the immediate release of all detained civilians and hostages.
No manipulation or political games
On the Middle East issue, China never engages in political manipulation or geopolitical games. We maintain friendly cooperation with all countries and never “bolster one and bash the other.” We have always been making judgments based on the merits of each issue and will continue to play a constructive role in regional peace and stability.
The mentioned article propagated a blatant lie that “President Isaac Herzog visited Taiwan,” while the truth is that the Israeli government has long adhered to the one-China policy, recognizing that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.
The article hyped up false narratives on Xinjiang-related issues, while the truth is that the Uyghur population in Xinjiang has grown from 3.6 million to 11.61 million since the 1950s, with regional GDP expanding from 800 million RMB to 2 trillion RMB.
In 2024, over 500 delegations totaling tens of thousands of visitors have visited Xinjiang, including foreign dignitaries, diplomatic envoys in China, representatives from international organizations, entrepreneurs, religious figures, experts and scholars, and media journalists. They unanimously stated that their observations and experiences in Xinjiang were entirely different from the reports disseminated by Western media.
For some time, certain international anti-China forces have persistently spread lies to sabotage China’s relations with other countries. We hope all friends in Israel can gain a deeper understanding of China and China-Israel relations through my elaboration, so as to avoid being misled by people with ulterior motives.
The writer is spokesperson of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the State of Israel.