Taiwan and Israel: Don’t Recognize, but Collaborate by Roie Yellinek BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,480, March 12, 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: More than 8,300 km separate Taiwan and Israel, but there are nevertheless important connections between the two small countries. They do not officially recognize each other, but over the past two and a half decades, they have found ways to collaborate. In the late 1940s, both Taiwan and the modern-day State of Israel managed to face down massive powers that categorically rejected their rights to their land. The Israelis’ opponents were an array of Arab armies and terror groups (and their international supporters) while the Taiwanese stood against the Communist Party of China. The two countries are both islands of sorts: Taiwan a literal island not far from mainland China, and Israel a metaphorical island surrounded by states that reject its very existence. Because of their physical isolation, both countries needed a superpower to protect them, and the US was ready, willing, and able to play that role. Israel and Taiwan view the US as a great ally and benefit from its economic and military support, and both wish to be viewed by the US as important allies in turn. The two states have something else in common: a meager supply of natural resources but an abundance of human capital. Both Israel and Taiwan struggle for international recognition, yet have not recognized one another. This is essentially because the Israelis want a positive relationship with Beijing and the Taiwanese want a positive relationship with the Arab world. Israel was the first Middle Eastern country to recognize the Communist Party of China as the official and only representative of the Chinese people after the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of