Embassy of China, Tel Aviv

As of December 2015, the embassy occupied offices at 219 and 222 Ben Yehuda Street in Tel Aviv and maintained a separate business department at 94 Namir Road.[6] A March 2025 interview conducted at the embassy, without identifying its street address, described a nondescript facade, high walls, and an unassuming entrance, with dark wood paneling, calligraphy scrolls, emblems of the People's Republic of China, and a porcelain jasmine-tea set inside.[8]

In December 2015, Globes reported that the Chinese government was acquiring Comverse House, a six-storey building with approximately 16,000 square meters of office space at 29 Habarzel Street in Ramat Hahayal, from Levinstein for NIS 200 million.[9] Comverse had vacated the building in January 2015; the property included offices, halls, laboratories, conference and display rooms, an auditorium, a dining room, and approximately 15,000 square meters of underground parking with 350 spaces.[9] A 2016 Globes report said the Chinese government bought the property from Levinstein Properties and a partner for NIS 192 million and noted that part might be converted into housing for embassy staff.[10]

In 2018, the embassy submitted a plan to rezone the Ramat Hahayal property from industrial, office, and commercial use to an embassy with employee housing. A 2019 report said the mission planned to move there from Ben Yehuda Street after the adaptation work.[11] A May 2026 interview conducted at the mission described the Ramat Hachayal building as newly inaugurated, confirming that the relocation had been completed.[7] That report called the former premises a small building on Hayarkon Street, differing from the 2015 report that listed Ben Yehuda Street and Namir Road.[7][6]

Israel was the first country in the Middle East to recognize the People's Republic of China, doing so on January 9, 1950, but the two states did not establish formal diplomatic relations for more than four decades.[2][1] A Jerusalem Center account dates their first formal contact to June 1987. Following an unofficial Chinese delegation's visit in the summer of 1989, China established a tourist office that the account called the kernel of its diplomatic presence in Israel.[12] The China International Travel Service branch opened in 1990 and, like Israel's representative office in Beijing, functioned as a de facto embassy.[13]

Full diplomatic relations were established on January 24, 1992, and embassies opened in Beijing and Tel Aviv that year, although the available sources do not give the Tel Aviv mission's precise opening date.[1] An Encyclopedia.com account described Israel as the last country in the Middle East to be formally recognized by China and placed the normalization in the context of China's interest in participating in the Madrid peace process.[14]

An April 2025 INSS study described the embassy as a channel for communicating China's positions to Israeli audiences and counted 30 articles published by Chinese ambassadors or embassy spokespersons in Israeli media since 2015: 21 in The Jerusalem Post, eight in Israel Hayom, and one in Haaretz. The study also reported that the embassy organized journalist delegations to China and monitored Israeli media coverage.[3]

Then-ambassador Cai Run said in a 2022 interview that bilateral relations had maintained healthy and stable development over 30 years, citing cooperation on projects including the new port of Haifa and the red line of the Tel Aviv Light Rail.[15] He also noted that the Tel Aviv Municipality building had been illuminated in the colors of the Chinese flag during the COVID-19 pandemic as a gesture of solidarity.[15] During a July 2023 visit to the National Library of Israel, Cai met with senior library officials and received a facsimile of a hand-colored map of China printed in Antwerp in 1584, drawn from the Eran Laor Cartographic Collection.[16]

A 2025 INSS analysis characterized Ambassador Xiao Junzheng, appointed at the end of 2024, as pursuing active public diplomacy through meetings with civil society and appearances in local media, using friendly language to promote economic, technological, and social ties while avoiding political disputes.[17] A March 2025 Calcalist Tech article, based on an interview at the embassy, described it as his first in-depth interview with Israeli media since arriving at his post.[8]

Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack, the embassy took on an active consular role for Chinese nationals in Israel.[18][5] On October 20, China's Foreign Ministry reported that more than 280 Chinese citizens were stranded in Sderot and directed the embassy to organize their relocation and evacuation. All had subsequently left the city, and more than 1,000 Chinese nationals had departed Israel for China or a third country since the conflict began.[18]

The embassy issued a security notice on September 22, 2024, warning that the Israel-Lebanon border was highly tense and advising Chinese citizens not to travel to Israel. It urged those already in the country to return to China or relocate to safer areas and advised those remaining to avoid unnecessary travel and high-risk areas, particularly in the north.[18]

Several episodes involving the embassy have drawn public attention or criticism. In February 2020, acting head of mission Dai Yuming, speaking at a press briefing in Tel Aviv during Israel's restrictions on arrivals from China amid the coronavirus outbreak, invoked China's reception of Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and World War II while urging Israel not to bar Chinese travelers.[4] The embassy subsequently clarified that it had not intended to compare the Holocaust with the contemporary situation or with the Israeli government's efforts to protect its citizens.[4]

In 2022, after The Jerusalem Post published an interview with Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, the newspaper's editor stated that a senior Chinese Embassy diplomat warned him that keeping the story online would harm Israel-China relations and that China would sever ties with the paper; the embassy also issued a public statement condemning the interview.[19] Separately, embassy representatives attended a Holocaust Day ceremony in Haifa and objected to Taiwan's envoy being invited to speak. They left the event in protest after organizers declined to ask her to leave.[5]

After October 7, 2023, the embassy largely withdrew from public comment on the conflict. An INSS analysis reported that Ambassador Cai Run's first public remarks following the Hamas attack appeared in a February 2024 article marking the Chinese Year of the Dragon, which discussed China's prosperity, economic contribution, and innovation without mentioning the massacre or the war.[5]

The purchase of Comverse House also generated legal proceedings. Two brokers sued the embassy and a Chinese representative in 2017, claiming unpaid brokerage fees on the NIS 192 million transaction. A 2018 default judgment in their favor was later cancelled and the case restarted, while the claim against the individual representative was dismissed on diplomatic-immunity grounds.[20] A neighboring-property dispute arose over security fencing at the Ramat Hahayal site. A 2019 appraisal commissioned by adjacent owners argued that metal additions had raised the perimeter fence from 1.5 to three meters with barbed wire, without a building permit, and could harm surrounding property values. The Tel Aviv municipality described the fence as temporary and confirmed that a planning commission had approved the embassy's application for a permanent structure.[11]