The whole purpose of setting up this college-enterprise...

The whole purpose of setting up this college-enterprise collaboration agreement was never about handling over data and trade secrets to the Chinese, but rather than the cooperation between China and Israel at Academia level according to the three-years action plan on Israel-China Environmental Cooperation for year 2017-2019. (http://www.sviva.gov.il/subjectsEnv/InternationalRelations/BilateralAgreements/Documents/IL-China-action-plan-2017-2019.pdf)

A few highlights:

Objective and Principles

Based on the understanding that cooperation between the Sidesin the field of environmental protection, sustainable development andnature conservation is of mutual benefit, the two Sides intend topromote environmental cooperation with the objectives of improvingmutual understanding, learning from each other, improvingenvironmental management and innovation, supporting the Green Beltad Road Initiative, and contributing to achieve SDGs.The cooperation is on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,demand orientation, reasonable division of labor and coordination as well as wide participation of relevant actors, such as Government,Academia and Business.

China supports Israeli cooperation with local governments inChina. It is noted that the Israeli Side has already establishedworking relations with the Provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu andintends to broaden this cooperation to additional provinces andmunicipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.

Intellectual property

6.1 Each Side will ensure the legal protection of intellectual propertyrights of all materials and products obtained or created on thebasis of this Plan, in accordance with its respective laws andregulations in force.

6.2 No Side shall transmit any confidential information obtained inthe pursuance of this Plan to any third side without prior writtenconsent of the other Side.

Furthermore, Chinese vice-president Qishan Wang has recently visited Israel and chaired 4th Meeting of China-Israel Joint-Committee Innovation cooperation with Israel PM, which has re-affirmed the relationship between China and Israel. ( http://www.pmo.gov.il/English/MediaCenter/Events/Pages/event_joint241018.aspx ).

Another key benefit of this college-enterprise agreement is to overcome labor shortage at their Changzhou factory, Jiangsu Institute of Urban and Rural Construction is a college-level institute for higher vocational education (Similar to TAFE NSW) under the administration of the Jiangsu Provincial Housing & Urban and Rural Development Department(http://english.jsjyt.gov.cn/2016-07/21/c_53377.htm), as far as I understand Fluence China could be offering lots of internship/graduates opportunities to work at their Changzhou factory. I tend to believe that Fluence China may have some difficulties to hire/maintain enough production workers at their Changzhou factory, as their base salary range are too low to attract enough people to apply for the job.  I believe this college-enterprise cooperation provides the real benefits to both side as it helps Fluence China to keep labour cost base low and hire enough workers to keep up the production rate, and it also helps the college to provide on-job-training for the students as well as graduates who look for immediate start at their career.