Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan is slated to travel to Israel at the end of the month, in the highest-level diplomatic visit from the People’s Republic in nearly two decades. Wang, who is considered a close ally of President Xi Jinping and thus one of the Communist Party’s most influential members, is scheduled to be in the Jewish State from October 22-25 and will partake in the fourth joint Israeli-Chinese Innovation Conference. Wang will be accompanied by a large business delegation including Jack Ma, co-founder of the powerhouse e-commerce Alibaba Group. Trade between Jerusalem and Beijing reached nearly $10 billion in 2017, more than double the figure from a decade ago. This trend appears to be accelerating, with Israeli exports to China increasing by 62 percent in the first eight months of 2018 compared to the previous year—from $2.14 billion to $3.5 billion. Imports from China increased by 10% over the same period, from $4.45 billion to $4.9 billion. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was in China last year for the third installment of the summit.
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