Israel stops arms sales to China

At the request of Washington, Israel has suspended sales of arms and security equipment to China, South China Morning Post said. The US government was reportedly concerned that sophisticated American technology that reaches Israel could be passed to China. However, sources inside Israel said that the intention was to cut ties between Israel and China in preparation for a shift in policy that would enable US firms to export direct to China.

The extent of Israeli arms sales to China is not known, but reports have said that China is developing a fighter plane based on Israel’s Lavi jet. In addition, photographs taken by US reconnaissance planes purport to show Chinese fighter jets armed with Israeli-made Python-3 air-to-air missiles.