Israel was the first country in the Middle East to recognize the statehood of the People's Republic of China.

In January 1992, the two nations officially established diplomatic relations, a result reached through lasting consultations and numbers of high-level meetings between the two sides since the mid 1980's.

During the United Nations Assembly in 1987, the Foreign Ministers of the two countries held a secret meeting and their subsequent dialogue in Hong Kong ultimately led to the establishment of the Representative Office of Israel Academy of Science and Humanities in Beijing in February 1990; simultaneously, the China International Travel Service was set up in Tel-Aviv, headed by an official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On January 23, 1990, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy and Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, who respectively represented his own country, signed the agreement, thus officially forming the diplomatic relations between China and Israel.

Following the founding of the Embassy of Israel in Beijing in 1992, the Consulate General of Israel in Shanghai was opened in 1994, whose main undertakings cover the promotion of cooperation in trade and economy, technology and culture between Israel and the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

With China's recovery of Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, the establishment of the Israeli Consulate General in Hong Kong was also incorporated into the agenda of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the two sides have frequently conducted reciprocal visits at various levels, and have strengthened ties in such fields as politics, business, education, culture, technological cooperation and agriculture.  The visits arranged by Israeli government included those of delegation comprising entrepreneurs and businessmen, academic group, journalists, artists and musicians, legal workers, and so on.

Close and regular contact has been set up between the two governments, including government organizations, municipalities, universities and research institutions. Many high level visits from both sides took place during these years - the presidents of Israel - Hertzog (1992) Weitzman (1999) and Katzav (2003) - visited China, while the former Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited Israel (2000).

Over the past ten some years since the diplomatic ties, consultation and annual conference held between the two Foreign Ministers has become a routine. Numerous agreements and contracts have been signed between the two countries.  The trade volume between the two countries is growing rapidly, reaching a total of 1.6 billion US$ in 2003.