COPECO - Comodan Far East Ltd.

History: COPECO - Before the diplomatic relations

Prior to the establishment of the diplomatic relationship between Israel and China, Reuven Merhav, who was the Israeli Consul in Hong Kong in 1988, was approached by several Chinese groups regarding the establishment of a secret company, in order to develop business cooperation between the two countries.

Copeco, a secret company, was established following the approval of Itzhak Shamir (the Prime Minister of Israel at that time) and Shimon Peres (the Foreign Minister of Israel and later the President of Israel). Copeco was registered in Hong Kong.

Amos Yudan was chosen by Mr. Minervi, the VP of the foreign ministry, to manage and operate Copeco.

Copeco’s Board of Director included four Director Managers from the Foreign Ministry, the Economic Ministry, the Treasure Ministry and the Agricultural Ministry.

In 1988 Copeco opened an office in Israel and on 1990 the company opened an office in the Jianguo hotel, Beijing and represented several Israeli companies.

During its years of operation, Copeco established several demonstration farms in China, supported high-level delegations from and to China and built special relationships with the leaders of both countries.

The company stopped its operation in 1992, following the establishment of the diplomatic relations between China and Israel.

You can read more about Amos Yudan’s story in “You and Us”, a book which was written by Chinese leaders about the special activities before the diplomatic relations between Isreal and China were established.