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Source: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/China-phobia-is-not-a-strategy-580075
Why China Phobia Is Not a Strategy for Israel
(Jerusalem Post) Oded Eran - Chinese companies have purchased ports in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Oman, Djibouti, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain to expedite the movement of its goods and reduce dramatically the cost of transportation. Greece's Piraeus port is totally owned and operated by a Chinese company. While it is claimed that U.S. Sixth Fleet ships will avoid Israel's ports because of the Chinese presence, in 2018 the USS Carney visited the port of Valencia, Spain, where the Chinese government-owned China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) controls 51% of the port. Also in 2018, the USS New York visited the port of Piraeus, owned by COSCO. Moreover, important branches of the U.S. Navy are located in the port of Seattle, where Terminal 18 is operated by COSCO. If spying on the Israeli navy or the Sixth Fleet is the Chinese purpose, that could be done more easily and cheaply by Chinese agents armed with cameras and bugging devices on the Carmel Mountain overlooking the port of Haifa. The writer is a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former Israeli ambassador to Jordan and the EU.