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Israeli academics’ ties with China are on the U.S.’s radar, according to two people familiar with the matter, adding new pressure on its Middle Eastern ally to cool relations with Beijing.

Academic projects involving technology research and development are a focus, one of the people said. While there has been no discussion of possible penalties or incentives to get Israel to dial down relations with Chinese universities, the person said, the U.S. is Israel’s top benefactor and cannot be ignored. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.

A spokeswoman for the U.S Embassy in Israel and a spokesman for the Israeli government declined to comment.

The scrutiny is further complicating the Israeli government’s plans to develop economic ties with China. China is Israel’s second-largest commerce partner, ranking only behind the U.S., with $11.9 billion in annual bilateral trade. That figure has more than doubled over the last decade, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had singled out commerce with China as a major target for expansion.

But those dreams have butted up against President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing, which is rooted in concerns about economic espionage and intellectual property theft. American officials have already warned Israel to restrict China’s major role in the Israeli economy. And with already fraught U.S.-Chinese relations now souring further over the coronavirus, relations with the Chinese were on the agenda again last week when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Israeli officials during a visit to Jerusalem.

Pompeo Steps Up Criticism of China But Eases Off Wuhan Lab Claim

Scrutiny of U.S. universities’ ties with China has been going on for some time. Efforts to root out economic espionage in academic institutions escalated sharply in January when a Harvard University chemistry professor was arrested for allegedly lying to investigators about his role in recruiting people to pass along scientific research to the Chinese government.

By pivoting to Israel, which has exchange programs and research cooperation agreements with China, the U.S. is trying to globalize that effort. While the U.S. hasn’t publicly raised Israeli-Chinese academic ties as an issue, and discussions still appear to be in preliminary stages, Israel counts on it for economic and defense support, and to back it in diplomatic circles.

The U.S. is far and away Israel’s most important trading partner, with $31.8 billion in annual bilateral sales. Washington also provides an unrivaled $3.8 billion in annual defense funding, security cooperation and close technological collaboration.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Israel didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Opportunities and Risks

“There are definitely opportunities to increase academic cooperation, but there are risks too,” said Shira Efron, a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “There are the espionage, human intelligence concerns, and also the issue of knowledge transfer -- both from the perspective of economic competitiveness and national security concerns.”

Read more: The U.S. Is Pressuring Israel to Rethink Investment From China

Academic cooperation between Israel and China has grown in recent years.

In 2015, the two countries set up scholarship funding for Chinese students to study in Israel, in addition to research cooperation agreements between seven universities each from the two countries. Today, about 1,000 Chinese students study in Israeli universities every year, most in technology, science and engineering, according to Emma Afterman, head of international policy for Israel’s official Council for Higher Education.

A few hundred Israeli students study in China annually.

“There’s been more cooperation with China, more exchange, more research,” Afterman said. “I’m not worried about it becoming a delicate issue, we have the ability to manage it and I think we can define how we want to do it.”

Carice Witte, founder of the SIGNAL nonprofit organization focused on Israel-China ties, thinks the Israeli government has to be more vigilant about keeping China from putting that cooperation to military use.

“The results of the university academic research can be seen as dual use, supporting technology that clearly has dual-use potential,” Witte said. “In Israel, university academia is funded to a great extent by the government, so the government here does have the potential to say something but they don’t.”

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