(Calcalist) Allon Sinai - Carice Witte is the founder and executive director of the Sino-Israel Global Network and Academic Leadership (SIGNAL) think tank, specializing in Israel-China relations. "SIGNAL basically had the approach of cultivating relations and building a network of policy experts across China in influential universities and in Beijing through the establishment of Israel studies which had never existed in China. We are now in 20 universities and there are many others on the way," Witte said. "Then we evolved as China became more and more present in Israel mainly through investments....China has a certain way about conducting its affairs that is foreign to Israel and what happens is that you innocently and unknowingly become dependent on them." With every company in China having a position of party secretary, which is appointed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, Witte doesn't believe there are any real private companies in China. "China isn't really a bad actor, it isn't Iran. Its interests are really domestic....If you understand that, you can transform what is a danger into a benefit....You need to be careful now, especially with the U.S.-China divide. There needs to be some kind of oversight, in Israel, not just for national infrastructure projects, but an oversight committee that looks at what technologies are of national security importance to China."
2020-09-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive