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Israel’s Military Relations with China: Mission Inconceivable

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The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel

Abstract

In early 1979, a 30-strong defense delegation left Israel for China to launch military relations, inconceivable at that time given Beijing’s hostility to Israel and the lack of diplomatic relations. Preparations of months, perhaps years, were based on Israel’s unique advantages as a potential arms supplier, free from COCOM and NATO restrictions and Soviet pressure, and intimately familiar with Soviet weapons captured in wars and upgraded. Encouraged by the United States, Israel sold China in the 1980s weapons and technologies including tanks, missiles, mortars, electronic, and other equipment, used to push the modernization of China’s armed forces. Since the early 1990s following the Tiananmen incident and the Soviet collapse, China has become a US adversary, which forced Israel to terminate its military relations with China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Yitzhak Shichor

  2. University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Yitzhak Shichor

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  1. Yitzhak Shichor
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Correspondence to Yitzhak Shichor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    P. R. Kumaraswamy

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Shichor, Y. (2022). Israel’s Military Relations with China: Mission Inconceivable. In: Kumaraswamy, P.R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_67-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_67-1

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