US Is Not Happy With Israel, For Its Alliance With Foe China

For Israel, the partnership with the US is not simply strategic but at the very core of its existential matrix. The India partnership, on the other hand, is often described as one made in heaven. But why is China then such a dominant Israeli partner? PRAKASH NANDA dissects the American unhappiness at this strange alliance

- Prakash Nanda

As Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett prepares his trip to Washington DC shortly, the country’s media is wondering how he will answer US President Joe Biden on the vexed question of his policy towards Beijing. Will Israel cut back on its relationship with China, particularly by ceasing to be a source of dual-use technology to China, something other Western countries and even Taiwan are doing to stop Beijing from misusing civilian technology for military purposes?

Now there are increasing global concerns over what the Chinese call the strategy of ‘Military-Civil Fusion’ (MCF), which is aimed at spurring innovation in key sectors and leveraging dual-use technologies for military end-uses. The US State Department describes it as an “aggressive, national strategy of the CCP” to help China develop “the most technologically advanced military in the world”, partly by “acquiring and diverting” cutting-edge technology from around the globe.

The most sinister aspect of this MCF strategy, so the argument runs, is that China is seeking to “exploit the inherent ‘dual-use’ nature” of many civilian technologies that can also be used for defence purposes. In other words, it aims at using seemingly harmless Western technology to strengthen China’s military.