On December 29, 2004, State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan of the People's Republic of China who was paying a visit to Israel, held talks with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Silvan Shalom and the two sides exchanged their views on bilateral relations and other issues in a broad manner.

Both sides made positive comments on China-Israel relations and expressed the hope to jointly promote greater development of bilateral relations on existing basis. Tang Jiaxuan suggested that both sides maintain high-level engagements and exchanges, expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation in the principle of mutual benefits and common development, and encourage the cultural, educational and civil exchanges so as to consolidate the basis for bilateral relations.

After the talks, Tang Jiaxuan and Silvan Shalom jointly met with journalists to take questions on China-Israel relations and Middle East issue.