Israel shuts one of its consulates in China amid growing strain in ties

Beijing: Israel has closed one of its Consulates in China amid growing strain in ties between the two countries over Beijing moving closer to Iran and Arab countries reshaping its wider Middle East policy.

In a sign of fraying ties, Israel has closed its consulate in Chengdu, ending its operations last month, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Friday.

In a letter published on Wednesday, the outgoing Israeli Consul General Gadi Harpaz called his five years in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu as "the most memorable of his diplomatic career" and said he was parting "with a deep sense of sadness and nostalgia".


"Although the consulate general is closing, the bridges of friendship, mutual respect and shared memories we built over the last five years will endure," Harpaz said.

Israel currently operates consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, as well as its embassy in Beijing.

Late last year, Israel announced it would close one of its diplomatic missions in China without specifying the reason.

The relations between the two countries showed signs of strain over China not immediately condemning the Oct 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas militants and Beijing's support for Palestine in the Gaza conflict.

According to a poll conducted in April 2024 by the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv-based think tank, more than half of respondents in Israel viewed China as hostile or unfriendly.

Analysts say that China is unlikely to abandon ties with Israel, given the value it places on trade and technology. At the same time, it continues to support Arab states and Iran to blunt US standing in the Middle East.

Zhu Yongbiao, a Middle East analyst and director of the Centre for Afghanistan Studies at Lanzhou University, described the Chengdu closure as "a natural phase in the normal development of bilateral ties".

The move should not be overinterpreted, nor did it mean that China-Israel relations were sharply deteriorating, Zhu told the Post.

He said that bilateral ties had already absorbed several shocks in recent years.

"If Israel can realistically reassess both countries' global standing and core interests... I believe there is still potential for relations between the two countries to recover and develop. China has no intention of maliciously damaging China-Israel relations," he said.