Knowing Yourself
Intelligence is meant to provide information about another. Gathering intelligence, one compiles data about an enemy (or a friend) seeking to establish behavioral patterns. These patterns, once established, should help explain and, at times, reveal the enemy’s propensity for decision and action or aims to provide insights into how the other will respond in a […]
China’s Middle East power play and its limitations
The discourse surrounding China’s influence in the Middle East often swings between exaggeration, such as suggesting China’s expanding presence challenges US primacy in the region, and underestimation, an argument that despite its regional clout, Beijing has little power to affect any meaningful change. In between, there lies a complex reality in which Chinese capabilities, while […]
China’s cognitive dissonance in the Israel-Hamas war
Cover Photo Credit: Illustration for The China Project by Derek Zheng The Israel-Hamas war has revealed a deep-seated cognitive dissonance emanating from Beijing’s assumptions about and approach toward the Middle East. China has sought to portray itself as a neutral party in the conflict, an apparent attempt to position itself as a peacemaker. However, Beijing […]
Of course Netanyahu must go to China
Cover Photo Credit: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on July 9, 2023. Gil Cohen-Magen / Pool via Reuters. News of Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trip to China triggered a chorus of objections and reproach within the Israeli establishment and beyond. Nevertheless, the Israeli prime minister will travel to China. After all, geopolitical […]
Classic Sephardic Judaism, Made in China
Cover Photo: Shanghai, China, April 1910, A Purim party. Credit: Yad Vashem A formidable though short-lived Sephardi presence in early 20th-century Shanghai fostered unique interpretations of Jewish texts and perceptions. The community may have disappeared, but the ideas live on. Both in Israel and abroad Jews are lining up according to a conventional divide: the […]
Is China the next world peacemaker? – opinion
Just last month, China successfully brokered a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement and indicated that it wishes to play peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine. CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER Qin Gang attends a conference in Shanghai, last week. He has told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts that Beijing is ready to help facilitate peace talks. (photo credit: ALY SONG/REUTERS) China’s […]
China ramps up its efforts to shape a multipolar world
Cover Photo Credit: Illustration for The China Project by Derek Zheng China’s recent achievement in brokering rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran has captivated the attention of pundits and policymakers worldwide. Now, China has indicated that it wishes to act as peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine. These developments reflect a trend that has seen a stark rise in China’s global […]
Divergent perceptions of China impact geopolitics
Countries in the Middle East view China’s growing power and influence in starkly different terms from the US and many of its Western allies. These alternative strategic perceptions are likely to have a decisive impact on geopolitics in the years to come. In some ways, they already are. Western perceptions of China increasingly align Over […]
Israel needs to chart its own course with respect to China
Israel’s alliance with the United States is the cornerstone of its foreign policy and should remain so. But a preponderance of common interests is not the same as an identity of common interests. Russia, for example, gave Israel a nearly free hand to engage Iranian assets in Syria even while Russia supported the Assad regime against American-backed […]
Israel government is new normal in the Middle East
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government is anything but the manifestation of extremism portrayed in most of the world’s media. Typical of misreporting in the Western press was Le Monde’s December 28 assertion that “the new coalition gives pride of place to Jewish extremists and the ultra-Orthodox, who plan to weaken the judiciary and expand settlements.” On […]