Vice-premier's trip to Israel, Palestine to promote peace, innovation

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday at the start of her visit to both Israel and Palestine, a trip that experts said will boost cooperation and help attract more global attention to the conflict and tension there.

Liu arrived in Israel as part of a three-stop visit that began on Friday and ends on Thursday. Her first stop was Egypt.

High-level exchanges have been frequent between China and the two Middle East countries in recent years.

In November, Vice-Premier Wang Yang visited both Palestine and Israel, and in May 2014, Liu also made a five-day official visit to Israel.

Li Shaoxian, a senior expert in Middle East studies at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, said that Chinese leaders often visit both Israel and Palestine during a single trip, which helps China strike a balance between the two countries.

The situation there has drastically worsened since the second half of last year, with conflict increasing amid frequent suicide attacks.

The visits by the vice-premier also will show that China pays close attention to the plight of the people living in the shadow of conflict and "its unchanged commitment and efforts in pushing forward the peace process", Li said.

Yin Gang, a senior research fellow on Middle East affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Israel-Palestine issue is being marginalized.

"Tension between Palestine and Israel continues, but the peace process has been forgotten by an increasing number of people. The media headlines regarding the Middle East are now mostly about the Syrian refugee crisis," Yin said.

Bilateral cooperation

Innovation will be a highlight of the visit to Israel. The vice-premier will co-chair the second meeting of the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation, according to a Foreign Ministry announcement on Friday.

On Jan 29 last year, Liu and then-Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman co-chaired the first meeting in Beijing, and they signed a three-year action plan to cooperate on innovation.

In a show of top-level support for bilateral cooperation on innovation, Premier Li Keqiang and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both sent congratulatory messages to the first meeting.

Wu Bingbing, a professor of Middle East studies at Peking University, said that although the size of the Israeli economy is not huge, it "enjoys a great reserve of brainpower and is an innovation-oriented economy and society".

As China is prioritizing innovation and restructuring its economy, "such cooperation on innovation and entrepreneurship may be the biggest common ground for the two countries at this time", Wu said.

Meanwhile, in Egypt earlier on Monday, Vice-Premier Liu called for strengthened cooperation in science and technology while visiting the country's National Research Center.

Liu also urged the establishment of more platforms and additional opportunities for the cooperation of young scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs of the two countries. Additionally, she said the two countries should share more ideas and experiences regarding science and technology innovation policies, development of industrial technology and commercialization of research findings.

She also encouraged scientific research institutions, universities and enterprises of the two sides to establish joint laboratories to promote high-level scientific research.

China will provide 50 more opportunities for young Egyptian scientists to work in China, she said.

Up to now, 17 Egyptian scientists have been offered the opportunity.

Contact the writer at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn