Kevin McCarthy rightly confronts Israel on China tech concerns
Tom Rogan
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) delivered an excellent speech to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday.
Celebrating the U.S.-Israeli alliance on this, Israel’s 75th anniversary year, McCarthy rightly observed that “Israel survives and thrives because of its values, courage, resilience, and determination.” The contrast between Israel’s economic and civil society success and that of its neighbors is proof positive that McCarthy’s analysis is correct. Of critical importance to Israel, which sees Iran’s nuclear threat as the precursor to a second Holocaust, McCarthy pledged that Congress would help address that threat and the other concerns that Iran poses. Iran’s escalating assassination plots show that the Islamic Republic isn’t simply a threat to Israel or the U.S., but to the world.
FORTUNATELY FOR CHINA CONGRESS REMAINS BEHOLDEN TO THE LITTORAL COMBAT SHIP
The speech, oddly, did not once reference the Palestinians. True, the ingredients for Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy are far from encouraging. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is riven by corruption and lacks Palestinian popular support. At the same time, Hamas’s control over Gaza precludes peace talks in that Hamas is committed to Israel’s annihilation. Still, it is in the U.S. national interest to see an eventual two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians. McCarthy could have offered words of hope that Palestinian leaders with the courage of former Israeli prime ministers such as Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, who offered concessions in pursuit of breakthrough peace accords, might one day take power.
That said, McCarthy did address the topic that most complicates U.S.-Israeli relations today: China and its effort to acquire high-technology products and research from other nations.
This is a particular concern with regards to Israel, which retains a world-leading tech industry. Unfortunately, Israeli tech firms have in recent years engaged in significant tech cooperation with China. This was a particular problem under Benjamin Netanyahu’s last government, with Netanyahu telling Xi Jinping in 2017 that the two nations’ relationship was “a marriage made in heaven.”
McCarthy observed that increasing U.S.-Israeli tech cooperation “would allow us to benefit from each other’s innovation, especially in military technology.” But he noted that “our innovation is at risk from a new threat: the Chinese Communist Party. While the CCP may disguise itself as promoters of innovation, in truth, they act like thieves. We must not allow them to steal our technology.” Referencing tentative Israeli efforts to increase scrutiny of foreign investment, McCarthy added, “I strongly encourage Israel to further strengthen its oversight of foreign investment — particularly Chinese investment.”
McCarthy’s linkage between U.S. and Israeli tech cooperation and the simultaneous efforts by China to access Israeli technology is important. The simple point is that Israel cannot expect to benefit from the most advanced U.S. technologies if it simultaneously pursues Chinese tech engagement in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Top line: The U.S. cannot tolerate one of its very closest allies indirectly helping the People’s Liberation Army perfect means of killing American service personnel in war. To be clear, that is what Israeli-Chinese tech cooperation risks. As the Washington Examiner noted in an editorial last November, “Biden and members of Congress from both parties must thus implore Israel to take a far more cautious stance toward its tech-trade engagement with China.”
McCarthy deserves credit for advancing that effort. The U.S.-Israeli alliance has always been rooted in shared values and mutual trust amid grave external threats. Considering the rapidly rising threat of a U.S.-China war over Taiwan, Israel must turn the page on its Chinese tech engagement.