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Credit to Author: Scott Moore | Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 14:00:00 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n The contrast could <\/span>hardly be more striking. In October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a\u00a0blistering speech<\/a>\u00a0accusing China<\/a> of stealing prized US technology and military hardware. Barely two weeks later, one of Beijing\u2019s most powerful bureaucrats touched down in Israel for a visit focused on\u00a0building ties\u00a0with its tech and innovation sectors.<\/p>\n Scott Moore<\/a> is Director of the Penn Global China Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously handled China policy at the US State Department and the World Bank.<\/p>\n What\u2019s Israel, a close American ally, doing paling around with a known technological rival of the United States? The fact is, Israel understands something that Washington has forgotten under President Trump. Yes, China presents serious challenges<\/a> to US interests and values. But like the old adage about keeping your enemies closer, it\u2019s both dangerous and counter-productive to try to seal America off from a world in which Beijing is steadily becoming a more potent force. If Washington withdraws and shrinks from the challenge, America will soon be out of the global game.<\/p>\n Jerusalem\u2019s warm ties with Beijing are surprising for several reasons. For decades, Chinese foreign policy was heavily tilted toward Israel\u2019s Arab neighbors\u2014a history which Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan acknowledged by taking time out of his Israeli itinerary to\u00a0visit the West Bank<\/a>\u00a0and lay a wreath on Yasser Arafat\u2019s tomb. China also has close ties to Iran, which Jerusalem considers an existential threat.<\/p>\n Even more perplexing, though, is Israel\u2019s eagerness to cooperate with Chinese companies and researchers regarding highly-sensitive and early-stage technologies. Earlier this year, Israeli diplomats inaugurated an incubator<\/a> in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou focused on biotechnology and the Internet of Things. The incubator not only assigns\u00a0Chinese companies rights to technology developed at the center, but is also supported, in part, by Israeli government funds. Despite Washington\u2019s warnings of China\u2019s rampant intellectual property theft, Israel is doubling down on Chinese collaboration.<\/p>\n To be sure, some Israeli officials have expressed\u00a0reservations\u00a0about the country\u2019s growing ties with China, especially Chinese investment in ports and other infrastructure. At least one Israeli tech firm, NSO, has been\u00a0accused<\/a> of working with authoritarian regimes\u00a0to suppress critics like Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi. But Israel\u2019s political and business leaders have seemingly weighed the risks and decided there is more to gain by engaging China than isolating it.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a conclusion that US officials should consider, as well. Indeed, it\u2019s one that American administrations, from Clinton through Obama, have embraced. And while this strategy of engagement has not coaxed China toward political reform, as Washington has long hoped, maintaining a degree of openness is still the right approach. It provides opportunity for American businesses, strengthens our ability to innovate, and sustains US credibility on the world stage.<\/p>\n The alternative\u2014essentially a form of containment\u2014simply isn\u2019t viable, even if it were desirable.\u00a0 More importantly, maintaining links between US and Chinese tech companies and researchers is the best way to keep tabs on China\u2019s increasingly\u00a0sophisticated surveillance state<\/a>, which integrates facial recognition technology, artificial intelligence, and swarms of personal data. Left in isolation, Chinese technologists will doubtless be pushed by hard-line officials in Beijing to focus on control, rather than the free communication that has so far underpinned the digital economy.<\/p>\n The best example of why engagement is preferable to isolation is the US university sector. Some\u00a0350,000 Chinese students\u00a0study at American universities, many in technical fields like engineering and computer science. They are\u00a0essential\u00a0to maintaining America\u2019s edge in high-tech research and development. At the same time, China\u2019s growing investment in fields like artificial intelligence means that without regular knowledge exchange with their Chinese counterparts, US researchers risk falling behind.<\/p>\n Despite these dangers, the Trump Administration has reduced the number of visas available to Chinese students in science and technology fields\u2014and has absurdly cast all such students as\u00a0potential spies<\/a>. To the contrary,\u00a0research\u00a0indicates that most Chinese students in the U.S. hold favorable views of the United States. America\u2019s higher education system is one of its greatest strengths, but it depends on engagement with the world, including China.<\/p>\n Of course, the US cannot ignore China\u2019s pervasive attempts at espionage or political influence, which Vice President Pence rightly called malign. But it can and should view China\u2019s changing role in the world as an opportunity, as well as a threat.<\/p>\n The reality of the twenty-first century is that few games are zero-sum. Scientific and technological progress are rarely the product of a single nation\u2014witness this year\u2019s Nobel Prizes, most of which were jointly awarded to researchers from multiple countries. Like it or not, China is becoming a bigger player in the digital economy across the globe, thanks in part to export-oriented strategies like the \u201cdigital Silk Road<\/a>.\u201d If Washington continues down its current path of trying to build an alternative bloc, it is likely to confine itself, rather than China.<\/p>\n In the last century, America responded to similar authoritarian challenges by separating itself from the world, a mistake it cannot afford to repeat.\u00a0 Instead, the United States, like Israel, can be clear-eyed about the risks China poses to its interests without retreating into self-defeating isolationism.<\/p>\n WIRED Opinion publishes pieces written by outside contributors and represents a wide range of viewpoints. Read more opinions here<\/a>. Submit an op-ed at opinion@wired.com<\/em><\/p>\n