After the arrival of US President Trump and his victory and return to the White House in Washington, it is expected that Israel will once again enter the line of the growing US trade conflict with China, due to the expected hostile economic policies of President Trump towards China. These indicators can be inferred from the appointment by the current Trump administration of a number of advisors, assistants, ministers, senior officials and military personnel in his administration with hostile backgrounds towards China, and perhaps this is exactly what Trump based his selection of his officials on. At a time when the policy of Chinese President Xi Jinping towards America and Israel in particular is based on following a policy of (civil and military integration) in confronting them, and transforming technological gains into a major Chinese military force.

 It is also expected that Trump himself will intervene to stop a number of sensitive Chinese strategic projects in important military and investment sectors in Tel Aviv.  At the top of these projects that the US is expected to reconsider regarding China in Israel is the US rejection of the Israeli Ministry of Transportation’s approval in 2015 of an offer from the Shanghai International Port Group to operate the Haifa Port for 25 years, starting in 2021, in addition to China’s investment of $2 billion to expand the port to become the largest port in Israel. It is noteworthy that this decision was made without official intervention from the Israeli Cabinet or the National Security Council in Tel Aviv. However, what may prompt the Trump administration to intervene to stop this giant project in favor of China in Tel Aviv is the great Chinese success in controlling part of the new Israeli port in 2018, which angered the previous US administration under Trump, and was covered by the Israeli media at the time with great anger, which led to a meeting in August 2018 between a delegation from the Washington-based Hudson Institute and the Center for Maritime Policy and Strategic Research at the University of Haifa to turn this issue of China’s complete control over the Israeli port into a source of international concern.  During this meeting, the American delegation, which included retired American Admiral Gary Roughead, and former Chief of Naval Operations and former Pentagon official Douglas Feith, sharply confronted the Chinese-Israeli agreement, which surprised many Israeli participants.

On the occasion of this serious issue raised regarding the extent of Chinese influence and complete acquisition of the largest share in the Israeli port and Washington’s anger towards it, the Egyptian researcher, as an expert in Chinese political affairs, followed those Chinese efforts made, perhaps in secret and up until this moment, in order to convince the Israeli side to move the headquarters of the Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv next to the Israeli Mossad building, which is the news that the researcher read on a number of American websites through her constant knowledge of everything related to Chinese affairs around the world.  For this reason, I immediately and personally contacted a number of Chinese figures to review their point of view on this matter, and the response came that “Washington”, as usual, accuses us of using our facilities and projects to spy on it, and this is not true.

 The Egyptian researcher would like to point out in this regard that China already has a large embassy in Tel Aviv, specifically located at (222 Ben-Yehuda St. Tel Aviv), which serves as a center for promoting its interests. Until recently, the Chinese side was actually interested in purchasing a new plot of land in the luxurious (Herzliya Pituach District) to move and build its new embassy, which is located near the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad and the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Agency “Unit 8200” north of Tel Aviv, as well as near (Glilot Base of the Military Intelligence Unit), all of which are sensitive Israeli military units that are already located near the main Mossad headquarters in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

  This is what China is planning, according to what has been circulated and rumored, by trying to convince the Israelis to purchase a large plot of land directly opposite the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad in Tel Aviv.  This is what Washington is warning against, and strongly, as is understood by everyone, to prevent the Chinese from causing harm to sensitive American interests in Israel if the Chinese get close to the headquarters of the Israeli Mossad in Tel Aviv and to all the American headquarters and military units located there near the Israeli Mossad building in Tel Aviv.

  As for analyzing the most important reasons and motives of the Chinese to move their embassy next to the Israeli Mossad building itself, this has great intelligence importance for the Chinese or for any intelligence agency in the world, in contrast to American policy, given the decisive role of the Israeli Mossad in shaping Israeli policy, as its activity is focused on: collecting information and data in the political, social, military and security fields from multiple sources in various parts of the world, carrying out special security and diplomatic operations in secret to protect Israeli interests, targeting and thwarting targets that could pose a threat to Israel, whether civilian or military, inside or outside its territory, managing spy networks and working to recruit agents to obtain information, monitoring public sources of information such as the media and academic studies around the world, evaluating the political and economic situation of Arab countries, and making recommendations based on the available information.  Accordingly, if the Chinese succeed in pressuring and enticing the Israelis to move their Chinese embassy close to the Israeli Mossad building in Tel Aviv, this will be an unparalleled Chinese success in being close to all the dangerous intelligence files controlled by the Israeli Mossad, related to all its relations with Washington and with neighboring Arab countries, in addition to the Mossad’s plans and policies towards China’s allies, the Mossad’s known enemies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran.

 The danger of the Chinese presence near the Israeli Mossad headquarters comes to protect its presence and interests in the region, if we know the extent of the success of the Israeli intelligence services “Mossad” in enhancing its capabilities in monitoring and attack over the past 20 years, to confront the Iranian nuclear program, and there is no better evidence of this than its ability two weeks after the explosion of the pagers, known as “pagers” of Hezbollah, and then the liquidation of its leader Hassan Nasrallah less than 72 hours after that. This is the same thing that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed on the Turkish “CNN” channel regarding his country’s weakness in the face of Israeli intelligence agencies, as he revealed that Tel Aviv had recruited several years ago the head of an Iranian unit created specifically to expel Mossad spies. This matter astonished the Chinese and the world in tracking, analyzing and monitoring the method of work and tactics of the Israeli Mossad in the region and around the world.  Here, perhaps what the Egyptian researcher read on Hebrew websites to verify and analyze this news – which is controversial, debatable, and analytical at the same time regarding China’s desire to move its embassy next to the Israeli Mossad – is what she learned from the fear of Israeli counter-espionage agencies that the Chinese were particularly interested in the relations of Israeli companies with American defense officials, and that – perhaps – this new Chinese request to move its embassy next to the Mossad, is intended to go back to China’s view of Israel as a back door through which it can access and penetrate secret American programs through Tel Aviv.  The Egyptian researcher was interested in following up on some of the accusations directed by Israel and Washington to Beijing against its request to move its embassy next to the Mossad, as American and Israeli analysts considered that China is thus targeting information about the two largest arms exporters in Israel, namely: “Israel Aviation Industry Company” , and “Rafael Armor”, which is the same Israeli company responsible for manufacturing weapons in “Tel Aviv” and exporting them around the world and is known as “Rafael Armor”, in addition to the company of “Elbit Systems”.

 These are all companies owned by the Hebrew state, and they have branches in the United States that help manufacture advanced Israeli weapons, including missiles and avionics. These designs and trade secrets are coveted by intelligence agencies and governments around the world, which – as the researcher learned – none of their governments dare to “officially” ask “Tel Aviv”, as China did by moving their embassies next to the Mossad headquarters and the headquarters of other Israeli military companies. American accusations have escalated recently against China that Beijing is seeking to expand its intelligence operations and espionage activities in Israel, targeting state-owned or private technology companies in Tel Aviv, which would ultimately lead to spying on the United States, Israel’s most prominent ally in the world.  China’s attempt to buy a new headquarters next to the Mossad – according to American and Israeli analysts – may be aimed at targeting American-Israeli commercial activity, especially in the field of arms purchases and sales from various countries, with Beijing trying to track the efforts of both Washington and Tel Aviv to contract with military and economic experts in order to conclude deals to buy and sell Israeli weapons from the heart of Tel Aviv. The Chinese devote a large part of their secret operations in Tel Aviv – according to the accusations against Beijing – to obtaining scientific and technological information. This is done by trying to infiltrate certain military projects in Israel with the aim of spying primarily on the United States of America.  What was truly surprising to the Egyptian researcher was what she read in English in a report published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on April 20, 2019, by David Stavrou, of accusations by Israeli academics against the Chinese side of spying on Israeli universities and research centers through those “Chinese classes and Chinese teachers teaching Chinese” to Israeli researchers and academics. On the Israeli side, there are two “Confucius” institutes operating in Israel to teach the Chinese language to Israelis. The first was opened at Tel Aviv University in 2007 and the second at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2014. Senior Chinese officials, including Chinese Vice Prime Minister Liu Yandong, attended the opening ceremony in Jerusalem.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also sent a recorded message of congratulations for the establishment of the Chinese Institute, knowing that Netanyahu’s visit to China in 2013, a year before the opening of the Confucius Institute in Jerusalem, may have paved the way for the establishment of the Chinese Institute in Jerusalem. Hence, Israeli academics at the time, headed by Noam Urbach, he explicitly accused the Chinese side of interfering in academic freedom in Israel, Professor Noam Orbach explicitly stated that “the decision to open a Chinese Confucius Institute, which co-directs the Department of East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Tel Aviv, is a clear and obvious conflict of interest”. He added that “there is no reason for opening an institute of this kind at the university, or for it to cooperate with the Department of East Asian Studies within the university, other than participating in Chinese censorship, exerting pressure and limiting academic freedom within Israel.” It is worth noting that one cannot deny the influence that Confucius Institutes have on the discourse about China, which senior Chinese official Li Changchun explicitly described in 2009 as “an important part of the Chinese propaganda apparatus abroad”.

  In this regard, Professor Orbach warns Israeli officials that Beijing itself does not do this on its territory, citing a number of evidences, for example, including that the study of contemporary China is considered a sensitive issue by Beijing and does not allow foreign students to delve into it and study it on its territory, as the Chinese authorities do everything in their power to maintain the (united) public discourse of the communist state. Professor Orbach says: “Human rights in China, for example, cannot be mentioned,” as “you cannot talk about internal political problems or about the suppression of minorities such as the Uyghur community,” referring to the Muslim minority in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

 Indeed, Israeli academic accusations against Beijing have continued, that Israeli academics who research these issues are the ones paying the price.  China has “officially” blacklisted the name of the Israeli Professor (Emeritus) Yitzhak Shichor, as one of the leading “Sinology” and Sinologists in Israel, and banned him from visiting China after he contributed to a book of articles on “Xinjiang”, the autonomous region of the Uyghur people in northwest China.

  In the context of this controversy, the Egyptian researcher would like to seize the opportunity in other upcoming articles to convey China’s point of view “officially” – as the official Chinese side requested of me – to the Egyptian and Arab sides regarding the reality of what is happening on the Chinese land of “Xinjiang”, and to clarify China’s official position with pictures, evidence and documents regarding the non-persecution of them, contrary to what the American and international media claim and transmit to the Arab media and the Arab press, as this file is the most dangerous file in the course of Chinese-Arab-Islamic relations, and it is the most sensitive of these topics for the Arab street. Therefore, the Egyptian researcher will present to all Arabs the official point of view towards Muslim minorities in “Xinjiang” according to the principle of “clarifying the facts”, and not to visit any Arab “accusing China regarding the persecution of its Muslims” to China in general or to the “Xinjiang” region in particular except through “pictures and information broadcast to them by Washington and its allies in the West under the pretext of violating human rights there”. Therefore, the “official” Chinese side may count heavily in the coming period to clarify the whole truth to the Arabs from a purely Chinese point of view. Within the framework of this Israeli and American controversy and accusation by a number of international intelligence agencies and independent researchers alike, which is the recent controversy – which the Egyptian researcher followed with great interest – against the role of the Chinese Confucius Institutes, and explicitly accusing them of involvement in industrial espionage, collecting information and exerting pressure on Chinese citizens living outside the country, and cooperating with the “United Front Work Department”, which is a mysterious agency under the auspices of the Communist Party in China.

 The Egyptian researcher also followed what was highlighted by Western newspapers specifically at the end of 2017 – which we may not have heard about in our Arab world due to our lack of interest in such topics despite their importance – as several prominent incidents raised doubts about the role of Chinese bodies responsible for research and education in espionage operations according to what the West reported in New Zealand, accusations were directed at the Chinese authorities when thieves broke into the home and office of Professor (Dr. Anne-Marie Brady), after she published new studies on Chinese policy in the South Pole in Antarctica, and China’s use of “soft power” in the West to achieve this.  And to convey to the reader – who is not familiar with the subject – what does this dangerous information mean about this new Chinese policy in the South Pole in the Antarctic region, especially with the extreme distance of that pole from the world? The Egyptian researcher learned after researching and reviewing this matter that the “Chinese State Administration for Ocean Affairs” has planned to build its fifth research station in the South Pole “Antarctica”, which will be specifically established on the “Inexpressible” Island in the “Tiran Nova” Bay in the Ross Sea. Which is a deep bay in the Southern Ocean, and scientists consider it the least changed marine ecosystem on Earth, and scientists consider it a living laboratory that can define the history of life in the South Pole.  The agreement was reached at the annual meeting of the Chinese Polar Science Academy at Changchun Chinese Polar Station, on Friday, October 27, 2017, that the new base would be a permanent research station and would be able to conduct a variety of independent scientific research in the South Pole. According to reports – which the Egyptian researcher read in English in local New Zealand media – the thieves stole only the computers and mobile phone of New Zealand Professor Anne-Marie Brady but ignored other valuables, which suggests that the operation was probably purely intelligence-based.

  In another major incident in 2014, the director of the Chinese Hanban Institute, at an international conference she attended in Portugal ordered her staff and assistants to tear out pages containing what the Chinese professor considered to be false information about Taiwanese academic institutions from a conference program she attended in Portugal.

 Perhaps the other incident that prompted the Egyptian researcher to ask frankly: What is the relationship between this and that?, is what was revealed by the American press in 2017, when China “officially” stopped funding Chinese scientists studying at the University of California in San Diego after the university hosted the Dalai Lama. So, the researcher wondered and is still wondering: What is the fault of these Chinese researchers? There is another incident in Tel Aviv – which was of interest and follow-up by the Egyptian researcher – in 2008, when a photography exhibition organized by a number of students who are photography enthusiasts from Tel Aviv University was removed – despite being previously permitted by the Israeli authorities – about the suppression of the Chinese “Falun Gong” movement by the Chinese authorities.  This prompted the exhibition organizers, the Israeli artists, to file a lawsuit in the Israeli courts, where the Israeli court ordered Tel Aviv University to re-upload the exhibition and pay 45,000 shekels (about $11,000) to the organizers. The judge (explicitly) indicated in his ruling – and for the first time the researcher considers it a politically motivated Israeli legal decision – that the decision to remove the exhibition was taken in part after pressure, apparently from the Chinese embassy, on the dean of students at Tel Aviv University.

  The Egyptian researcher also followed up on this controversy that occurred in particular several years ago in Canada, which includes many Chinese immigrants. In 2012, the Toronto District School Board in Canada signed an agreement with the Chinese government to fund a branch of the Confucius Institute that would provide Chinese language education to hundreds of thousands of Canadian students, which was objected to by Canadians and the West at the time, on the grounds that China was using its immigrants and Confucius Institutes to exert pressure for political reasons.  However, the Egyptian researcher still explicitly comments on such allegations – which foreign diplomats always ask her to comment on – that they may be exaggerated allegations and accusations, and here the Egyptian researcher almost agrees with the Chinese point of view – especially in light of the recent accusations directed at the Chinese Confucius Institutes of espionage – that they carry part of the propaganda and counter-propaganda tools between Beijing and Washington, especially in light of the fierce American opposition to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, in addition to the Chinese-American economic and trade competition and the raising of American customs tariffs on Chinese goods entering American territories.

 Hence, it becomes clear that the Israeli, American and Western accusations of espionage are directed at Beijing from every direction, whether to spy on Israeli military and technological secrets, or even to spy on the international and Israeli academic community in Tel Aviv through Chinese learning classes within Israeli universities and think tanks, which the Egyptian researcher considered part of the framework of economic competition between China and America and comes within the framework of counter-propaganda directed between the two sides.