The US Senate has introduced legislation to enhance partnerships between American and Israeli companies on COVID-19 projects, thus lessening US dependence on China for life-saving medications and treatments, JTA reports.
The bill, titled The Expanding Medical Partnerships with Israel to Lessen Dependence on China Act, was introduced on Wednesday by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with Chris Coons (D-DE), and six other senators, Republicans and Democrats.
“Our dependence on China for life-saving medications and treatments is deeply problematic,” Cruz said in a statement Wednesday.
“We’re now seeing leaders of the Chinese Communist Party – in the midst of a public health crisis they allowed to go global and endanger millions – threaten to withhold live-saving medical supplies and medications from the United States. By expanding partnerships with Israel – an ally and a global leader in medicine – to develop coronavirus treatments, this legislation is a common sense step to address that threat,” he added.
The bipartisan legislation was introduced as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a quick eight-hour visit to Israel, criticized China while praising Israel.
“You’re a great partner,” Pompeo said in an appearance with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before their meeting in Jerusalem. “You share your information, unlike some other countries that try and obfuscate and hide information. And we’ll talk about that country, too.”
The US has pressed Israel to reconsider allowing Chinese investment in national projects, including work on the Haifa Port, where the US Sixth Fleet is anchored, and building the Sorek 2 water desalination plant on the Mediterranean coast in central Israel.
Pompeo told Israel’s Kan 11 News on Wednesday that the economic ties between Israel and China are of great concern to the United States.
"We do not want the Chinese Communist Party to have access to Israeli infrastructure, Israeli communications systems - anything that puts Israeli citizens at risk, and therefore jeopardizes the ability of the United States to work with Israel jointly on important projects. We think the dangers are very real, and we shared information on the issue so that they can make the decisions themselves,” Pompeo said.
He stated that he had presented intelligence to Netanyahu on China. "We have concerns about Chinese involvement, and that's what I talked to Netanyahu about."
Following Pompeo’s visit to Israel, a senior State Department official told reporters that China is “not a reliable partner,” and that while Pompeo doesn’t have a problem with countries having relationships or trading with China, the pandemic is different.
“I think COVID sort of highlights the dangers of dealing with states that are not transparent, that don’t have fair trade practices, that really leverage and torque their trade to leverage certain things out of their trade partners,” said the official.
“Aside from sort of debt traps that we’re seeing, we’ve seen in Djibouti, elsewhere, right, where you have to give China a 99-year lease on a port – to other states. So a region where they’re really in debt and it’s causing major issues with the economy[...],” added the official.