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Friday January 12, 2007

Olmert’s visit to China rich in diplomatic, personal meaning

by dan baron
jta

beijing | For Ehud Olmert, it was a state visit rich in both diplomatic potential and personal significance.

The Israeli prime minister arrived Tuesday, Jan. 9 in Beijing for a three-day trip aimed officially at bolstering already burgeoning 15-year-old ties and, more discreetly, at lobbying for a stronger Chinese stand against Iran’s nuclear program.

Even though annual Israeli-Chinese trade has risen to $3 billion, Olmert anticipated a tough time persuading President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to abandon their circumspect tack vis-a-vis Tehran, given the Asian superpower’s thirst for Iranian oil.

Nevertheless, Olmert said he and Wen had a “deep” discussion on Tehran during a Wednesday, Jan. 10 meeting, in which Wen said “surprising things, things both positive and unexpected,” Reuters reported.

The Chinese premier reiterated his country’s support for U.N. sanctions on Tehran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, saying they “showed the international concern over the Iran nuclear issue,” Chinese state television reported. He said China “will continue to play a constructive role in promoting the settlement of the issue.”

Like Russia, China has been a bit of a wild card at the U.N. Security Council, which has been debating sanctions designed to curb Iran’s atomic ambitions.

The council unanimously passed a resolution last month limiting Iran’s trade in sensitive nuclear materials that could be used for bomb-making, but China appears more willing than Western powers to believe Tehran’s claims that its plans are peaceful, and it’s always ready to return to negotiations with the Islamic republic.

Israel sees Iran as an existential threat, given the country’s presumed drive for nuclear weapons and its repeated calls for Israel’s destruction.

Since they first hosted Jewish traders in the ninth century, the Chinese have displayed an intense interest, bordering on philo-Semitism, in a people they consider their “Western counterparts” in terms of enterprise and cultural depth.

The Israeli prime minister knows this firsthand: His parents, Mordechai and Bella, were among thousands of Jews who fled persecution in Russia in the early 20th century, settling in the northern Chinese city of Harbin before moving on to the nascent Zionist state.

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