LAUSR

ABSTRACT In the first decade or so of official ties between Israel and China, the cooperation between the two was largely in the field of military technology until this avenue was blocked by the U.S. in 2000–2005. Netanyahu’s visit to Beijing in 2013 marked a restart of intensive bilateral cooperation, this time in civilian sphere: science and technology, China’s infrastructure projects and increasing Chinese investment in Israel. Yet after a few years of newly burgeoning bilateral ties, the American factor intervened again. With the outbreak of the US–China trade war, the Trump administration dramatically increased its pressure on Israel to cease meaningful cooperation with China or at least to considerably downscale it. The article analyses the focal points of US pressure (up to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemics) and explores the difficulty of Israel and China in maintaining mutually beneficent ties in the age of aggravating US–China competition. Speaking from China’s perspective, the article points at the weakness of Chinese soft power as one of the major hurdles in expanding China’s ties with Israel.