In this essay, I will compare the civilizations of Israel and China to find how similar and different they are in their cultures, religions, traditions, and societies. There are so many differences starting from population, life expectancy, religious beliefs, etc., but I expect to find some similarities as well. There is much information that has been written about these two countries. Many people actually think that these two countries are at opposite sides of the field. But there are so many differences and similarities to comprehend that we probably don’t know many things about their relationship.
China is the most populated country in the world with approximately 1,435,253,155 people in it now. One thing that makes China very popular is the Great Wall, an attraction that gets visited by 10 million people every year; that’s more popular than how many people visit Israel every year. Israel gets about 3.6 million visitors a year. People mainly visit Jerusalem and that gets about 3 million visits a year. China also has the biggest army and the second largest defense budget in the world. China has a big manufacturing industry that produces most of our tools, items, and gadgets. How do they do it? Well, it used to be only low-end items like toys that were made overseas, but really this has happened because of how inefficient United States businesses have become, and how we have been heavily importing many items, even high-end electronics like phones, computers, and tablets. In fact, many businesses that used to be based in the United States have actually closed down a ton of facilities here and re-opened a bunch of them in another country. Businesses just use the other countries’ markets and low-wage workers to make a profit. The companies don’t pay the workers a lot of money and have enough left over to give to all of the shareholders to boost the return on their investments. China is also a communist country, that’s probably why they can control the manufacturing and get lots of business.
The Israelis are the Jewish people. Their system of government is a parliamentary democracy, as opposed to China’s communism. Israel is also the most mentioned nation in the Bible. This is important because of its many stories in the Bible, they’ve inspired to many people to God. The Israelis were the chosen people of God. He chose them to show all the other nations that He was the one true God, the Creator of the world. He promised Abraham that he would have as many descendants as there were stars in the sky, so Abraham is actually the father of Israel. God promised him blessings if Abraham followed God. And even though he sinned, he trusted God, and God gave him many descendants, starting with Isaac. However, Jewish people do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to save us (the Messiah). To us this may be a confusing statement because we are both believe in the same God, but the Jewish people do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. For those of us who understand how true the Bible is, both the Old and New Testaments, this is not very understandable. Israel as a country have gone through a lot of problems in finding its current land, which they got in 1948. They say they do not want controversy they just desire peace. Israel is a historically rich nation and it is where our Savior Jesus Christ was born.
The major religion in Israel is Judaism. In 2016, 74.7% of Israelis identified themselves as Jewish, 17.7% as Muslim, and 2% as Christians. The three religions had different beliefs that confuse what is right and who is right and to which God Abraham really was serving. Debates have been the source of all wars throughout history, as was World War II which was the deadliest and bloodiest war of all time. Today, the middle east and many other nations around the world are continuously struggling over all of Israel’s issues. Israel is a Jewish nation mainly, but Israel is also where Christianity came from and is home to Islam and its holy site. The dome of the rock is also where the biblical Jewish temple of God is. Because of this, Christians want to protect Israel. According to the Old Testament Israel is the beginning of Christianity. To Christians, Israel is the home to their religion and the Jewish people are the chosen people of God. Christians always pray for Israel and support them in many ways hoping the Jewish people will one day see the truth of Christ. Islam is a different story. There’s so much violence and hatred for Jews in Islam, much of Islam would want to see Israel burned and destroyed. And they fight with the Palestinians over the land all the time. Israel has a good army to protect itself and they also have many allied nations around the world. Israel is all is surrounded by Islamic nations. Israel is also where the First Temple of God was built by King Solomon during biblical times. ‘Torah’ is the religious book that has many commands for the people of Israel.
China does not allow religion, they are a secular, non-theistic country (they don’t believe in God). However, there are some religions in China, but the Communist Party of China does not allow their members in government to practice any religion. The religions you will find in China are Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam.
In conclusion, I found out that there are many differences between the two countries, but there are also some similarities. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to recognize the People’s Republic of China (communism) as the legal government of China and in 1992 they established normal diplomatic relations. Since that time, the two countries have maintained a close strategic economic, military and technological connection with each other. Israel has an embassy and three consulate offices in China. China and Israel are also trading partners (they do business with each other). China is also one of the few countries in the world to maintain warm relations with Israel.