Fact number one: It is no secret that Israel is a world leader in developing mobile apps. The Holyland always has a stong presence at the annual Barcelona conference.

And just look at the news in recent weeks:

• TechCrunch has reported that IronSource has raised US$85m to distribute software in the American and Chinese markets.
• Intel’s Israeli r&d is leading the high-tech giant into the mobile arena.
• The newest Arab incubator in Israel will focus on mobile tech

Handy, Sodyo, Quando are many of the start ups featured at the Mobile 2015 in Tel Aviv yesterday. CallVU, with its strong menu application, picked up yet another award. The list of noteworthies is very extensive.

Fact number two: Utilising the country’s expertise in defense solutions, Israel has quickly become an accepted force in the burgeoning cyber industry. A classic success story is CyberArk and its unique laser-focused solution to protect ‘privileged accounts’. Recently listed on NASDAQ, it is arguably causing more of a splash than Alibaba. The share price has more than doubled.

And while the Chinese interest in the Israeli economy is growing daily, I was wondering how these tech advances would impact on the demonstrators in Hong Kong. Israel is an open democracy, surrounded by existential threats. China, which runs Hong Kong, is a dictatorship hat threatens its neighbours.

A link was provided yesterday by Lacoon, an Israeli cyber company. It uncovered how protesters have been sent a virus via WhatsApp. Known as Xsser, this steals messages and locations. The source has been linked to, but as yet unconfirmed, Chinese authorities.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal exposed the rapidly rising level of Chinese investment in Israeli high-tech. Let us hope that these sums do not infringe on basic human freedoms, even in the investor’s own back yard.