Chinese Billionaire Invests In Israeli Tech Institute
The $130 billion donation by Li Ka-shing to establish a joint Israeli Technion-Chinese research center is just the first step toward unlimited technology cooperation between Israel and China.
The $130 million donation by Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing to the Israel Technology Institute of Haifa, or Technion, caused a media frenzy in Israel last week, on Sept. 29, because of its extraordinary size. It is, however, only part of a larger, much more interesting story about Israel’s role in the academic revolution currently under way in China.
The interaction between China’s vision of itself becoming a technological superpower and a key player in the global high-tech industry and Israeli academic institutions is constantly producing new joint ventures. It turns out that the Chinese are big fans of Israeli knowledge and achievement in these fields, and they consider higher education in Israel a model worthy of emulation.
