China continues to invest in Israel: A year after joining as a partner in Tel Aviv’s light rail project, the Chinese government announced it plans to construct a huge 20,000 square meters complex to serve the country's diplomats in Israel.
China is looking to build the complex in the Tel Aviv area, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.
The investment in the project is estimated at USD 50 million.
China's deputy foreign minister, who was in Israel this week to attend the memorial ceremony for late Prime Minister Yizthak Rabin, took advantage of his visit to inspect a few potential sites for the project in the Tel Aviv vicinity.
The visiting official also held a meeting with Tel Aviv city engineer Danny Keizer to discuss the venture.
China's diplomatic delegations in Israel are currently scattered in several locations in Tel Aviv and Herzliya, just north of Tel Aviv, and the Chinese government is interested in concentrating them in one place.
The plan is to locate a site for purchase or construction and convert it into a closed compound that will serve as home for China's representatives in Israel.
This Chinese initiative is unusual, as most of the foreign embassies' properties in Israel are normally leased.