Opinion

Staring into the abyss of US-China decoupling

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent trip to Israel solidified the Jewish state’s position at the cusp of the widening U.S.-Chinese divide.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) talks to China's Premier Li Keqiang (right) during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 8, 2013. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center) talks to China's Premier Li Keqiang (right) during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 8, 2013. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90.
James Dorsey
Dr. James M. Dorsey, a non-resident senior associate at the BESA Center, is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture.

Israel knew the drill even before U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo boarded his flight to Tel Aviv in mid-May, four days after the death of his father. It was Pompeo’s first and only overseas trip since March.

Echoing a U.S. warning two decades ago that Israeli dealings with China jeopardized the country’s relationship with the United States, Pompeo’s trip solidified Israel’s position at the cusp of the widening U.S.-Chinese divide.

Two decades ago the issue was the potential sale to China of Israeli Phalcon airborne warning and control systems (AWACS). Israel backed out of the deal after the United States threatened to withdraw American support for the Jewish state.

This time the immediate issue was a Chinese bid for construction of the world’s largest desalination plant and, on the horizon, a larger U.S.-Chinese battle for a dominating presence in Eastern Mediterranean ports.

Within days of his visit, Pompeo scored a China-related success even if the main focus of his talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was believed to be Iran and the application of Israeli law to portions of the West Bank.

Israel signaled that it had heard the secretary’s message by awarding the contract for the Sorek-2 desalination plant to an Israeli rather than a Chinese company.

The tender, however, is only the tip of the iceberg.

China’s interest in Israel is strategic given that Israel is one of the world’s foremost commercial, food and security technology powerhouses and one of the few foreign countries to command significant grassroots support in the United States.

If there is one thing Israel cannot afford, it is a rupture in its bond to the United States. That is no truer than at a time when the United States is the only power supportive of its consideration of plans to apply Israeli law to portions of the West Bank.

The question is whether Israel can develop a formula that convinces the United States that its interests will delineate Israeli dealings with China while at the same time reassuring China that it can still benefit from Israeli assets within those boundaries.

“Right now, without taking the right steps, we are looking at being put in the situation in which the U.S. is telling us we need to cut or limit our relations with China. The problem is that Israel wants freedom of relations with China but is not showing it really understands U.S. concerns. Sorek-2 was a good result. It shows the Americans we get it,” said Carice Witte, executive director of Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership (SIGNAL), an organization that seeks to advance Israeli-Chinese relations.

Analysts, including Witte, believe there is a silver lining to Israel’s refusal to award the desalination plant to a Chinese company: it will allow it to steer a middle course between the United States and China.

“China understands that by giving the Americans this win, China-Israel relations can continue. It gives them breathing room,” Witte said in an interview.

It will, however, be up to Israel to develop criteria and policies that accommodate the United States and make clear to China what Israel can and cannot do.

“In order for Israel to have what it wants … it’s going to need to show the Americans that it takes Washington’s strategic perceptions into consideration and not only that, that it’s two steps ahead on strategic thinking with respect to China. The question is how,” said Witte.

Ports and technology are likely to be focal points.

China is set next year to take over management of Haifa Port, where it has already built its own pier, and is constructing a new port in Ashdod.

One way of attempting to address U.S. concerns would be to include technology companies in the purview of a still relatively toothless board created under U.S. pressure in the wake of the Haifa deal to review foreign investment in Israel. It would build in a safeguard against giving China access to dual civilian-military use technology.

That, however, may not be enough to shield Israel from increased U.S. pressure to reduce Chinese involvement in Israeli ports.

“The parallels between the desalination plant and the port are just too close to ignore. We can’t have another infrastructure divide,” said Witte.

The two Israeli ports will add to what is becoming a Chinese string of pearls in the Eastern Mediterranean. China already manages the Greek port of Piraeus, and the China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) is looking at upgrading Lebanon’s deep seaport of Tripoli to allow it to accommodate larger vessels.

Qingdao Haixi Heavy-Duty Machinery Co. has sold Tripoli Port two 28-storey container cranes capable of lifting and transporting more than 700 containers a day, while a container vessel belonging to Chinese state-owned shipping company COSCO docked in Tripoli in December 2018, inaugurating a new maritime route between China and the Mediterranean.

Major Chinese construction companies are also looking at building a railroad that would connect Beirut and Tripoli in Lebanon to Homs and Aleppo in Syria. China has further suggested that Tripoli could become a special economic zone within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and serve as an important trans-shipment point between the People’s Republic and Europe.

BRI is a massive infrastructure, telecommunications and energy-driven effort to connect the Eurasian landmass to China.

Potential Chinese involvement in reconstruction of post-war Syria would likely give it access to the ports of Latakia and Tartus.

Taken together, China is looking at dominating the Eastern Mediterranean with six ports in four countries, Israel, Greece, Lebanon and Syria, which would create an alternative to the Suez Canal.

All that is missing are Turkish, Cypriot and Egyptian ports.

The Chinese build-up threatens to complicate the United States’ and NATO’s ability to maneuver in the region.

The Trump administration has already warned Israel that Chinese involvement in Haifa could jeopardize continued use of the port by the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

“The writing is on the wall. Israel needs to carve out a degree of wiggle room. That, however, will only come at a price. There is little doubt that Haifa will move into the firing line,” said a longtime observer of Israeli-Chinese relations.

Dr. James M. Dorsey, a non-resident senior associate at the BESA Center, is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture.

This article was first published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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