CHINA

CHINA, country of eastern Asia. -Early Jewish Visitors and Settlers Individual Jews might have visited China before the eighth century, but the first authentic literary evidence of their presence dates only from that period. Two fragmentary documents of this period were found in Khotan, Chinese Turkestan (now Sinkiang Province), then the westernmost outpost of the Chinese \<!   \> \!main places of jewish settlement in china from the eighth century to modern times. Main places of Jewish settlement in China from the eighth century to modern times.   Empire. sir aurel stein during his explorations here in 1901 found a mutilated Persian document, which is believed to be in Hebrew script, part of a business letter dating from 718. Shortly afterward Paul Pelliot discovered, among thousands of Chinese manuscripts, a single-leaf Jewish prayer text written in square Hebrew letters. The prayer was still folded when found; apparently the owner had carried it on his person in this way. Both Jewish visitors probably arrived by caravan from or via Persia across Central Asia. While these visitors traveled by land, other Jews arrived in China by sea along the Muslim trade route to the southern Chinese port of canton , Kwangtung Province. There, during a rebellion in 878–79 some 120,000 Muslims, Jews, and other foreigners are said to have been massacred. The Jews who entered Khotan and Canton may never have had an opportunity of seeing the interior of China. Their stay was temporary and they exercised no lasting influence. Reports that there were other Jewish communities in Chüanchow (Zayton), Fukien Province, and Ningpo, Chekiang Province, may be true, but cannot be corroborated. Under the declining Sung Dynasty a cohesive Jewish group of some 1,000 people, including women and children, settled in the ninth or tenth century at the invitation of the emperor in kaifeng , capital of Honan Province. They were reported to be speakers of New Persian and arrived from either India or Persia. Some 250 of their descendants, whose sense of Jewish identity has been severely reduced through intermarriage, are still living in Kaifeng. By profession the original settlers were specialists in the manufacture, dyeing, or pattern-printing of cotton fabrics. This industry was then being developed in China, partly to meet the chronic silk shortage. Additional information is available regarding Jews in China under the Yüan Dynasty. Marco Polo, who visited China toward the end of the 13th century, reported that Jews, Muslims, and Christians were disputing the advantages of their respective religions before the Mongol conqueror and his court. Moreover, three decrees pertaining to Jews were issued in China under Mongol rule, indicating that the number   of Jews in China at that period must have been sizable: (1) "Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans shall be taxed as before…" (1329);(2) levirate marriages (Ḥalizah) were prohibited (1340); these were practiced among Jews and Muslims, but were an abomination in the eyes of the Chinese, Mongols, and Manchus; and (3) wealthy Muslims and Jews were summoned to the capital to join the army (1354). No new Jewish communities were formed in China until the middle of the 19th century. (See Table: Jewish Communities in China.) (Rudolf Loewenthal) -Modern Jewish Communities The three major Jewish communities in 20th century China were located in Harbin, Tientsin, and Shanghai. For each the story of settlement, development, and decline is different. The Jewish community in Shanghai consisted of three distinct groups. The earliest arrivals were Baghdadi and British Jews who came to trade in the newly opened treaty ports shortly after the Opium War (1840–42). Most prominent in this group were members of the sassoon family, whose base was Bombay and who specialized in warehousing, transport and the opium trade in China. As a result of astute land speculation and business investments, they gained an important position in all areas of commercial and financial life in South China. Although this largely Sephardi community built communal institutions, such as synagogues, schools, and a hospital, it was worldly, sophisticated, and very much a part of the new Western society of the treaty ports. The second group began to arrive after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), and especially after the Russian Revolution of 1917. They participated in Shanghai's commercial life on a lesser scale, primarily as import-export merchants and agents, and built their own communal institutions. This Ashkenazi community, which was formally founded in 1907, developed strong ties with world Zionism after 1913. One of the most able and devoted community leaders was N.E.B. Ezra, who also published the first Jewish paper in China, Israel's Messenger. Altogether the Shanghai Jews numbered several thousand in the 1930s. Refugees from Nazi persecution formed the third group. Starting as a trickle of mainly professional people after 1933, it became a flood in 1938 and 1939. According to one estimate, there were about 20,000 refugees in Shanghai by August 1939, the majority German Jews. Prior to 1943, the refugees lived in different sections of Shanghai, although most were concentrated in Shanghai's Hongkew district. After February 1943, however, the Japanese authorities ordered the establishment of a segregated area, where approximately 16,000 refugees spent the war years subject to hunger, disease, poverty, and subtle forms of persecution. However, unlike the two other groups, \<!   \> \!demography of major jewish communities in china Demography of major Jewish communities in China   City Province Year or Century Number Main origin Remarks Canton Kwangtung 9th cent. numerous India/Persia Numerous massacred together with Muslims, etc. Remainder disappeared Chüanchow Fukien 14th cent. unknown India/Persia Disappeared Hangchow Chekiang 14th cent. 1882 numerous 60 India/Persia Disappeared Sephardim, British subjects Hong Kong Victoria 1954 1968 250 230 India/Iraq Half Sephardim, half Ashkenazim 70 Sephardim, 160 Ashkenazim (mainly Harbin) Manchuria Early 20th cent. 1917–1946 few 5,000 Russia Ashkenazim (mainly Ulan) Bator (Urga) Mongolia 1920s 800 Russia Refugees, 600 in Urga were killed or fled to China Ningpo Chekiang 15th–17th cent. unknown India/Persia Disappeared Shanghai Kiangsu 20th cent. 700 250 from Europe 50 from America 400 from Baghdad British subjects 1933–45 20–25,000 Poland, Baltic States, Germany, Austria, Italy, Balkan States European refugees from Hitlerism Peking (modernday Beijing) Hopeh 17th cent. 1933–1945 Few c. 100 Europe Refugees Tientsin Hopeh 20th cent. 2,000 1,900 Russians 100 Europeans Refugees Yangchow Kiangsu 15th–16th cent. unknown India/Persia Disappeared Kaifeng Honan 10th–12th cent. 17th cent. 18th–20th cent. 1,000 750 200–250 India/Persia Surviving descendants of Jewish community   the Hongkew refugees were a transient community. The Manchurian community began around the turn of the century in Harbin and along the Chinese-Eastern Railway as a pioneering venture by hardy Siberian and Russian Jews. Later, during the Russo-Japanese War, Jewish supply agents to the Russian army and Jewish soldiers came and remained in Manchuria. These early settlers contributed significantly to the development of Harbin, and actively promoted Manchurian commercialization and industrialization. They established soybean oil refineries, grain mills, and breweries, and participated in coal-mining and the lumber industry. The Russian Revolution dispersed thousands of Eastern European Jews to Manchuria, many of whom settled in Harbin. Others moved on to Mukden and Dairen, or to Tientsin and Shanghai. From its inception in 1902, the Harbin community, which consisted of around 12,000 persons in the 1920s, developed strong communal and cultural institutions. Jewish publishing in Russian flourished; there were synagogues, a library, a hospital, a Jewish high school, and a number of charitable and Zionist organizations. revisionists were especially active and, as in Shanghai, several Betar groups functioned in Manchuria, Subsequent to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931 and world economic difficulties, Jewish prosperity declined. Whereas in 1929, there were 15,000–20,000 Jews in Manchuria, this figure dropped as Jews left to look for better economic opportunities elsewhere in China. In spite of Tientsin's favorable location as North China's port and a foreign concession, the Tientsin community grew slowly and remained numerically smaller than either Shanghai or Harbin. Founded in 1904 by a handful of Siberian and Russian Jews, it consisted of 2,000–2,500 persons by the late 1930s, all of whom lived in the foreign concession. Tientsin Jewry engaged in lucrative export enterprises, notably the fur trade. A number of outstandingly energetic, gifted and imaginative communal leaders, such as L. Gershevich, created a cohesive and tightly knit community with charitable institutions, a Jewish school, a hospital, and a clubhouse. A synagogue was built as late as 1937. The Tientsin community had a number of Zionist organizations, and strong ties with the world Zionist movement. Emigration from China, which began in 1945, took many years to complete. In spite of technical difficulties, the resettlement and repatriation of unpropertied Shanghai refugees was a relatively simple matter. For other Jews in China, with their considerable private and communal assets, emigration was more problematic especially after the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. Only gradually were properties sold or turned over to public custody. (Irene Eber) A few elderly Jewish residents without families were allowed to live out their days in Shanghai. Neither the Nationalist government on Formosa (Taiwan) or the Communist government on the mainland had any diplomatic relations with Israel until 1992 (see below). At the beginning of the 21st century there were some Jews living in China, particularly in Hong Kong, Peking (Beijing), and Shanghai. These communities consisted mainly of businessmen (exporters) and their families from North America, Israel, Australia, South Africa, and Latin America. There was also a kosher kitchen and a Jewish community center in Shanghai led by Rabbi Greenberg of the Chabad movement. (Xun Zhou (2nd ed.) -China and the Jews While the dichotomy between Christians and Jews, or later in the 19th century between the "Aryan" and "Semitic" races, may not be applicable in China, the mystique of "the Jews," or pervasive images and constructions thereof, as well as perceptions of what "Jewishness" meant in specific historical periods, is just as apparent in China as it has been in the West. In other words, perceptions about the mythical "Jews" exist not only in the West but also in China, where they are anything but simple. While such perceptions may appear to correspond to images of the Jews in Europe, they have nonetheless been endowed with indigenous meanings. By constructing "the Jews" as a homogeneous group, or a constitutive outsider, who embodies all the negative as well as positive qualities that were feared or desired by various social groups in China, the Chinese as a homogeneous "in-group," were able to project their own anxieties onto the outsiders. In this respect, representing "the Jews" corresponds to a widespread fear of, as well as need for, an "other," which can be found in many cultures and societies. In modern China, definitions of "Jew" or "Jewishness" are very complex. The "Jew" is a symbol of money, deviousness, and meanness; the "Jew" may also represent poverty, trustworthiness, or warm-heartedness. It has religious as well as secular meanings. While it represents individualism, it also stands for collective spirit. On the one hand it symbolizes tradition, on the other it can equally invoke modernity. One day "the Jew" is a stateless slave, the next a dominant world power. "The Jew" is both nationalist and cosmopolitan. He can be a capitalist or an ardent communist, a committed revolutionary or corrupt traditionalist. In short anything which is not Chinese is "Jewish"; at the same time many things which are clearly Chinese are also "Jewish." (Xun Zhou (2nd ed.) -China and Israel FROM THE BALFOUR DECLARATION (1917) TO THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL (1948) AND THE PEOPLE'S PUBLIC OF CHINA (1949). China and Israel both cultivate a rhetoric emphasizing their ancient historic roots and the claims derived from them. A feeling of affinity and a memory of shared suffering has regularly played a role in the relations between Chinese and the Jews, and later on Israel. In 1920, Sun Yatsen, founder and first president of the Chinese Republic, endorsed the Zionist program and praised the Jewish contribution to "the civilization of the world." The latter statement has now become commonplace in China, repeated even by government leaders. Sun Yatsen's friendship led China to support the Balfour Declaration and vote for   the League of Nations' resolution that conferred the Palestine Mandate (including Balfour's promise to the Jews) to Great Britain (1922). Some Chinese republican sympathy for Jewish national aspirations continued, expressed, for example, by the politician Sun Fo, son of Sun Yatsen. Not all intellectual attitudes were friendly, however. Zionism also became a target of campaigns against "Imperialism" and "Capitalism" already before World War II. China's politicians began to waver when the plan to partition Palestine between a Jewish and Arab state was submitted to the United Nations in 1947. Torn between Jewish and American lobbying efforts for a Jewish state, conflicting geo-political interests, and the hostility of its own Muslim minority and the Arab world, China finally abstained. For the period between 1917 and 1948, no contacts between official Jewish representatives and the fledgling Communist Party of China have so far come to light. In the years between 1950 and 1955, when the antisemitic campaign orchestrated by Stalin in the Soviet Union and its satellites reached its peak, the Chinese Communists showed no hostility to Judaism and Zionism. Mao Zedong had mentioned in one of his early writings the "Jewish National Liberation Movement" and welcomed with open arms a few anti-fascist European Jews who joined his struggle against the Japanese invaders (1944). FROM THE CREATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL (1948) AND THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1949) TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES (1992). The 42 years from 1950 to 1992 have been called the "frozen period," when Israel was diplomatically isolated from both the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, in the latter case largely by Israel's own decision. However, this period also saw complex developments, which had major consequences for future relations between China and Israel. Many events seemed contradictory and were kept secret, and some still are. January 1950. Israel recognized the PRC, only three months after its foundation by Mao Zedong – the first Middle Eastern country to do so. American policy interests played virtually no role in the decision of the newly founded Jewish state, which was seeking relations with as many non-hostile countries as possible. However, Israel's Prime Minister david ben-gurion emphasized that his reasons were historic and not only "pragmatic"; the Jewish state had to forge long-term relations with the two great civilizations of Asia, China and India. China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai acknowledged Israel's recognition and expected negotiations towards the establishment of diplomatic relations. The hostility of the Arab countries, considered as Western reactionary bastions, had at that time no perceptible influence on China. 1951–1953, War in Korea, where the Chinese army intervened massively. United States requests led to the end of Israel's contacts with the PRC. This was the first episode in a repeated history of tensions between Israel and its main protector caused by policy divergences on China. China has, arguably, become one of the most serious and enduring sources of foreign policy friction between the United States and Israel. February 1955. Following renewed Israeli feelers towards the PRC, an Israeli "trade and goodwill" delegation was invited to Beijing, headed by David Hacohen, Israel's diplomatic representative in Burma. However, the Bandung Conference of Asian-African nations in April 1955 marked, as far as is known, the end of political contacts between China and Israel. Shortly thereafter, the first Arab country (Egypt) established relations with the PRC, followed by Syria and others. The PRC sought to expand its influence in the Arab Middle East and the Third World and was no longer interested in forging diplomatic ties with Israel. 1956–1976. From the Suez campaign on (Oct. 1956), China pursued a permanent public propaganda war against Israel, presented as a "tool" of Western and American imperialism. The virulence of the propaganda increased over the years. In 1965, the PRC recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). China gave the PLO and other radical Arab groups financial and military assistance. After his emergence as head of the PLO, yasser arafat , was from 1970 on a frequent visitor in Beijing. Following its admission to the United Nations in 1971, the PRC took, internationally, a systematically hostile stance against Israel. However, China's true attitude towards the Middle East and Israel appears today influenced by geo-strategic interests no less than by Third World solidarity. Verbatim transcripts of discussions conducted between Mao Zedong and henry kissinger in November 1973 came to light in the late 1990s. Mao told Kissinger that China would continue its support for the Arab countries, but welcomed all American steps to stop the Soviet Union from controlling the Middle East, thereby implying a discreet but unequivocal endorsement of American military support for Israel. 1960s and 1970s. Israeli weapons, of unknown quantity, were sold to Taiwan but an official diplomatic recognition of Taiwan was not on Israel's agenda. Sales are said to have stopped at the latest in 1992. 1978–1979. Menaḥem Begin , Israel's prime minister from 1977, authorized sales of military technology and equipment to the PRC, through the intermediary of a business magnate, shaul eisenberg . As in the case of Ben-Gurion in 1950, the motives of Begin went beyond immediate commercial interests and included a long-term geo-political vision of China and Israel. China's agreement to buy Israeli weapons represented a moderation of China's attitude towards Israel that was greatly facilitated by the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt in 1979. It was also motivated by the poor performance of the Chinese military in its war with Vietnam in the same year, and the ensuing policy decision to modernize the Chinese armed forces. 1980s. Israel began to ship relatively important quantities of weapons to the PRC. Informal estimates that cannot be substantiated   mention framework agreements worth billions of U.S. dollars over the years. No American opposition is known to have been aired, probably because the United States wanted to prop China up as a military counterweight to the Soviet Union. The 1980s also saw the first sales of Israeli agricultural technologies to China and increasing trade. Israeli and Chinese delegations conducted discreet negotiations towards the establishment of official relations. The foreign ministers of both countries met during the United Nations Assembly in 1987. A "China International Travel Service" was set up in September 1989 in Tel Aviv, and a "Representative Office" of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Beijing (June 1990), and in November 1991, Israel's Defense Minister moshe arens made a secret visit to China, and shortly after, China's deputy foreign minister visited Israel. These were the last "unofficial" steps leading to diplomatic relations. FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS (1992) TO 2005. On January 24, 1992, the foreign ministers of the two countries, david levy and Qian Qichen, signed a communiqué in Beijing establishing diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level. China's final decision to formalize its growing relations with Israel was triggered by a succession of events that changed China and the world between 1989 and 1991. The suppression of the Tian'anmen student protest in May 1989 left China politically isolated from the Western world and subject to an arms embargo. This was followed by the first Gulf War, which ended in February 1991 with an American military victory. Closely watched by China, this war initiated another readjustment of China's military strategy. Furthermore, although China was eager to participate again in world affairs, it was absent from the Arab-Israeli Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991, which was jointly sponsored by the United States and the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, was the final reason compelling Beijing to reassert its international standing. In order to participate in Middle Eastern peace efforts, however, China had to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. Moreover, relations with Israel seemed a good way to reach out to the United States and possibly affect America's China policy through the American Jewish community's influence in the United States. Political Relations and High-Level Bilateral Visits. Diplomatic ties were strengthened during the 1990s with important bilateral visits aimed at consolidating relations. In 1992 Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen visited Israel, followed by state visits by the Israeli President chaim herzog (1992) and Prime Minister yitzhak rabin (1993). The Israeli Consulate in Shanghai was opened in 1994, and Prime Minister binyamin netanyahu visited China (1998), followed by President ezer weizman (1999). These exchanges culminated in the visits of the chairman of the Chinese National's People Congress, Li Peng (1999), and finally, that of President Jiang Zemin (2000) to Israel. President Jiang was the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to visit Israel, but also the last before the souring of relations between the two countries a few months later, after Israel was forced to cancel the sale of the Phalcon airplanes to China (see below). From 2000 to 2002 Israeli delegations visited China in an effort to reestablish ties. However, it was the visit by Foreign Minister shimon peres to Beijing in March 2002, and the announcement that Israel would pay $350 million as compensation for the canceled Phalcon deal, which allowed both countries to "open a new book" in their relations. The following year Israeli President moshe katzav visited Beijing (December 2003) and met the "Fourth Generation" of Chinese leaders, President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. In 2004 Israeli industrial delegations toured China and State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan visited Israel, followed by a visit from Foreign Minister silvan shalom to Beijing. The Israeli foreign minister also met the mayor of Beijing and vowed to promote closer cooperation between the two countries in view of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sino-Israeli Defense Relations. As mentioned above, defense ties preceded the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Chinese military had long displayed genuine interest in the structure and performance of the Israeli army, and the larger Chinese public also showed interest in weapons and military history in general and in Israel's military achievements in particular. Against this backdrop, forging defense links was further encouraged by circumstantial factors mentioned above. China needed up-to-date weapons and Israel needed money and stronger foreign relations. Israeli weapons sales to China are said to have declined steadily in the 1990s compared to the 1980s. Israel supplied China with conventional weapons as well as training and know-how, some of which were allegedly inspired by American or jointly developed systems. The most controversial deal, the sale of the Israeli-manufactured Phalcon airborne early warning system, was initiated in 1994 and finalized in 1998. Initially, the deal concerned only one Phalcon, but China sought to modernize its military with four to eight Phalcons worth $1–2 billion. In June 2000, massive pressure by the United States, claiming the sale would upset the military balance in the Asia Pacific region, forced Israeli Prime Minister ehud barak to cancel the deal. This provoked considerable Chinese anger. It was the biggest setback in relations between China and Israel since they had been established. However, senior Israeli military personnel continued to visit China. Exchanges were now reported to be limited to matters pertaining to "homeland security and counter terrorism." For example, Israeli and Chinese military experts were discussing tactics and technologies used in the fight against terrorism, but military relations were also subject to more American scrutiny. U.S. controls appeared to apply even to civilian goods produced by Israeli defense industries and technology transactions related to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.   Civilian trade relations. Irrespective of the ups and downs in defense links, direct Sino-Israeli civilian trade continued to grow, rising steadily from $695 million in 1992 to $550 million in 1999 and $2.2 billion in 2004. However, Hong Kong has long been a privileged gateway to China, and much of the trade with China transits through the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. Therefore, when trade with Hong Kong after 1997 is taken into account, the figures rise sharply to $2.4 billion in 1999 and $5.7 billion in 2004. Trade with China and Hong Kong represented 7.8% of Israeli exports and 6.5% of imports in 2004. Exports from China consisted mainly of chemical products, plastics, textile, and electronic equipment and components. Exports from Israel included precious stones and metals as well as optical, photographic, measuring, and medical instruments. Bilateral trade with Taiwan did not decline after 1992 and maintained steady albeit moderate growth Agriculture and agricultural technology. Another important field for cooperation between the two countries has been agriculture. More than 60% of China's population lives from agriculture and related activities, which explains the rural populations' political weight as well as the need for Beijing to address the farmers' concerns. Israeli agriculture, agricultural systems, and technologies, including even the kibbutz, have thus attracted official and popular Chinese interest. In 1993, China and Israel signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" between their Ministries of Agriculture, and successively built a joint Agricultural Training Center and a Model Farm in a suburb of Beijing where flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees were planted with agro-technologies from Israel. Subsequently, collaboration in the fields of management of ground and surface water, utilization of low-quality water, and water-saving irrigation was launched, a demonstration dairy farm was created (2001), and Israeli delegations were encouraged to invest in agricultural projects in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the region with the largest Moslem population in China. Science, Technology and Education. From 1993 on, cooperation agreements were signed in a wide array of fields. Cooperation and scientific exchanges started off in basic research in the fields of agriculture and water resource management and gradually included information technology (telecommunications, semiconductors, software). Other sectors covered were medical equipment, biotechnology, biomedical engineering, and space technology. In 1993, China and Israel agreed to fund a small number of Chinese students to come to Israel every year, and vice versa. In 1995, a memorandum encouraging education exchanges was signed, followed by visits of Chinese schoolteachers and principals. In 1998 a fund was set up to allow 100 postdoctoral Chinese researchers to study at Bar-Ilan University, and in 2001 Tel Aviv University signed a cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. According to official Chinese sources, China was sending approximately 200–250 researchers every year to participate in training, and Israel was sending approximately 100–130 experts to China. Conferences and symposiums were held in Beijing and Jerusalem, sponsored by a joint fund created for this purpose. Chinese who are interested in foreign cultures are usually intrigued by "Jewish" rather than "Israeli" culture, and often do not differentiate between the two. Thus, the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 did not represent a radical new beginning but gave a strong, officially sanctioned, boost to an already existing curiosity about Jewish culture and history. Mutual cultural interests between Chinese and Jews in modern times date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the first Chinese studies of Jews, particularly the old community of Kaifeng, appeared in 1897 (Hong Jun), the first known book on the Chinese written in Modern Hebrew was published in 1911 (Perlmann). A few Chinese authors continued to write about Jews, but regular and sustained study became possible only after the Cultural Revolution (1966–76). Since the early 1980s, several hundred articles and books have been published on every aspect of Jewish and Israeli history and culture. The subjects included biblical history and archaeology, the Holocaust, Israel's history, economy, and intelligence service (Mossad), and more. Translations of books on Jewish and Israeli themes played a significant role in improving Chinese understanding of the Jewish people. Books by famous Jewish and Israeli writers and poets, as well as many books written by Israel's leaders are available in Chinese. Since the mid-1990s, translations of classical Jewish texts began to appear: rabbinic-talmudic texts, Maimonides, 20th century thinkers. Between 2000 and 2005, as many as 10 if not 20 books on Jews or Israel appeared annually. Judaic study centers or scholars are active in several academic institutions (e.g. Beijing, Harbin, Hong Kong, Jinan, Kaifeng, Kunming, Nanjing, Shanghai). In Israel, it was martin buber who introduced Chinese studies to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the 1940s. Sinology has been growing in Israel ever since. Many of the Chinese classics, alongside modern and contemporary literature and poetry have been translated, and Mao Zedong's work could also be read in Hebrew in the 1960s. The main Chinese study centers are in the universities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, smaller ones in Ben-Gurion and Bar-Ilan University. Israeli Sinologists cover a wide span of themes ranging from Chinese culture to history and politics. In 2005 it was estimated that the number of young Israelis learning Chinese reached seven or eight hundred. The corresponding number of young Chinese studying Modern Hebrew in China was probably below 50. Art, particularly the performing arts, was the second most important form of cultural exchange. Chinese acrobatic groups, folk dancers and musicians, the Beijing Opera and ballet groups have participated in Israeli art festivals every year since 1994. Israeli orchestras, ballet, and theater groups have performed in China over the same period. Israeli movies were shown in China and Chinese movies in Israel. Various   Chinese art and history exhibitions took place in Israel. Most memorable was the exhibition "China: One Hundred Treasures" in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in late 2001. In China, there were exhibitions of Israeli artists and of the Holocaust, amongst others. One planned exhibition, the Einstein exhibition, agreed by China and Israel during President Jiang Zemin's visit in 2000 (see above) was canceled by Israel in 2002, in the aftermath of the Phalcon crisis, after China demanded the deletion of references to the fact that Einstein was a Jew and a supporter of Israel. However, other cultural exchanges have apparently not been affected. (Shalom Salomon Wald (2nd ed.) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: W.C. White, Chinese Jews (19662), includes bibliography; D.S. Margoliouth et al., in: JRAS (1903), 735–60; P. Berger and M. Schwab, in: JA, 1 (1913), pt. 2, 139–75; E. Ezra, Chinese Jews (1925); S. Rabinovitz, in: Gesher, 3 pt. 2 (1957), 108–21; H. Dicker, Wanderers and Settlers in the Far East (1962); Shunami, Bibl. 389–90. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Xun Zhou, Chinese Perceptions of the "Jews"and Judaism: a History of the Youtai (2001).