As Israelis head to the polls Tuesday to determine the makeup of the next government, China is watching closely after years of clashing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza and Iran.
Netanyahu and opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot are competing in Israel’s first national election since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks and the wars that followed in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. The outcome could determine whether Israel’s government keeps pursuing open-ended military campaigns, which Beijing casts as a threat to the regional stability it says it wants.
The vote could also shape Israel’s approach to regional security and its stance on its once promising economic ties with China at a time when its chief military ally, Washington, has put technology at the core of its great-power competition with Beijing.
Beijing Takes Aim at Netanyahu
China has been forthright in its opposition to Netanyahu’s military decisions. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed about 1,200 mostly civilian Israelis, and the ensuing Gaza war, China has presented itself as a voice for stability, calling for an end to hostilities and pushing diplomacy.
The day after those attacks, China’s Foreign Ministry called for restraint and an end to hostilities without explicitly condemning Hamas. The ministry also said the “fundamental way out” was a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Beijing’s effort to position itself as an “international mediator” continued throughout the Gaza war, as it repeatedly called for a ceasefire while criticizing Israel’s military campaign.
“Israel’s actions have gone beyond self-defense,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said days after Hamas’s attack. “It should seriously listen to the calls of the international community and the United Nations secretary general and stop collective punishment of the people in Gaza.”
Netanyahu’s government took umbrage. In September 2025, the prime minister accused China of helping orchestrate an anti-Israel media campaign.
“There is an effort to impose a siege on Israel,” he said. “This is managed by the same forces that support Iran and Iran’s efforts to place a military siege on us and strangle us.”
The divide widened after Israel and the United States launched a joint operation against Tehran on Feb. 28. Beijing issued a statement opposing the military action the same day.
“Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected,” the foreign minister said. “China calls for an immediate stop to the military actions, no further escalation of the tense situation, resumption of dialogue and negotiation, and efforts to uphold peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Chinese state media coverage has been critical of Netanyahu. On Monday, Xinhua ran a headline asking whether the prime minister was “playing up” the Iranian threat ahead of the next day’s election, highlighting his rivals’ accusations that he was exaggerating it for political gain. The government in Beijing has not commented on the candidates.
Qin Tian, deputy director of the Institute of Middle East Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), told China Radio International that Netanyahu faces a serious challenge and may resort to “extreme and risky” measures to boost his election prospects by projecting strength, including provoking conflicts involving the Palestinians, Lebanon, Yemen or Iran. CICIR is widely reported to be affiliated with China’s Ministry of State Security.
From “Marriage Made in Heaven” to Falling Out
“I think we’re in one of the lowest points of …China-Israel relations in our history,” Assaf Orion, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, told MBN.
Beginning in 2011, Israel-China relations generated growing enthusiasm, culminating in March 2017 with the signing of the Comprehensive Innovative Partnership. Both sides identified technology as a central pillar of cooperation. In 2013, Netanyahu described the combination of Israeli innovation and Chinese production capabilities and capital as a “marriage made in heaven.”
But Orion said the relationship took a sharp turn in 2017, when the first Trump administration released its national security strategy, shifting Washington’s focus from the global war on terror toward great-power competition, with technology at its core.
Orion said a second major blow to the ties came when Beijing laid out its critical position on the Gaza war.
Since then, polls have shown a sharp decline in the Israeli public’s approval of China. According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted in 2015, 55 percent of Israelis viewed China favorably. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 33 percent, according to polling cited in an analysis by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. An INSS survey in May 2024 also found that 35 percent of respondents said their opinion of China had worsened since October 7.
Which Outcome Suits China?
Regional stability is central to Beijing’s interests, Orion said, disposing it to prefer an Israeli government that avoids prolonged conflict.
“Certainly, Eisenkot is not in favor of running endless wars, which has been a signature of Netanyahu,” he said.
Eisenkot has said that the Hamas issue would be resolved within 18 months, either through a political agreement or decisive military operations, Orion said, contrasting that stance to Netanyahu repeatedly speaking of “total victory” through military operations that Orion sees as lacking a clear conclusion or effective political arrangements.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said he had instructed Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and military to overthrow Iran’s government. Orion dismissed that objective as “wishful thinking,” warning that pursuing it could fuel the regional instability Beijing seeks to avoid. “I think Netanyahu has increasingly achieved a status and reputation of a regional destabilizer,” he said.
Still, while a more stable regional environment could serve China’s interests, Orion said there is no direct evidence that Beijing has meddled in Israel’s election.
Max Meizlish, the Deputy Director of the Center on Economic and Financial Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former official at the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions office, sees a contradiction in China’s approach.
“Beijing wants access to Israeli technology and markets, but it is also helping sustain Iran’s ability to threaten Israel by purchasing the bulk of Iran’s exported oil and providing the regime with technologies that support Tehran’s military,” he told MBN.
Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, Meizlish said, Israel should scrutinize Chinese investment in sensitive industries more aggressively and consider restricting dealings with Chinese companies tied to China’s military and Iran’s weapons programs.
“Beijing’s interest in Israel’s election is less about who wins than whether Israel will continue treating its economic relationship with China as separate from its core national security interests,” he said.
