People's Republic of China – Egypt relations were established on May 30, 1956.

History

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...

Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah sent a delegation to

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

China led by

Domiyat Domiyat was an Egyptian admiral, sea captain, and explorer of the Fatimid Caliphate. In 1008, Domiyat traveled to the Buddhist pilgrimage site in Shandong, China, to seek out the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong with gifts from his ruler Al-Hakim bi-Amr A ...

. The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt ordered

Jidda Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's promi ...

to treat Chinese traders honorably upon their arrival in the early 15th century.

Yusuf Ma Dexin Yusuf Ma Dexin (also ''Ma Tesing''; 1794–1874) was a Hui Chinese Hanafi- Maturidi scholar from Yunnan, known for his fluency and proficiency in both Arabic and Persian, and for his knowledge of Islam. He also went by the Chinese name Ma Fu ...

visited Egypt in the 1840s. The Republic of China (1912–49) sent Hui Muslims like

Muhammad Ma Jian Muhammad Ma Jian (; ar, محمد ماكين الصيني '; 1906–1978) was a Hui-Chinese Islamic scholar and translator, known for translating the Qur'an into Chinese and stressing compatibility between Marxism and Islam. Early years Ma w ...

and other Hui Muslim students to study at

Al-Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque ( ar, الجامع الأزهر, al-Jāmiʿ al-ʾAzhar, lit=The Resplendent Congregational Mosque, arz, جامع الأزهر, Gāmiʿ el-ʾazhar), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic ...

in Egypt. The Fuad Muslim Library in China was named after

Fuad I of Egypt Fuad I ( ar, فؤاد الأول ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; tr, I. Fuad or ; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sulta ...

by the

Chinese Muslim Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6-2 percent of the total population (21,667,000- 28,210,795) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most nume ...

Ma Songting. Imam

Wang Jingzhai Wang Jingzhai (; 1879 - 1949) was a well-known Muslim scholar during the Republic of China period. He was the first or possibly second person to translate the entire Qur'an into Chinese, with the exact time attributed to either 1927 or 1932. He be ...

studied at Al-Azhar University in Egypt along with several other Chinese Muslim students, the first Chinese students in modern times to study in the Middle East. Wang recalled his experience teaching at madrassas in the provinces of Henan (Yu), Hebei (Ji), and Shandong (Lu) which were outside of the traditional stronghold of Muslim education in northwest China, and where the living conditions were poorer and the students had a much tougher time than the northwestern students. In 1931 China sent five students to study at Al-Azhar in Egypt, among them was

and they were the first Chinese to study at Al-Azhar. Na Zhong, a descendant of Nasr al-Din (Yunnan) was another one of the students sent to Al-Azhar in 1931, along with Zhang Ziren, Ma Jian, and Lin Zhongming. A False

Hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

(), a saying of the prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

, spread to China, which says "Loving your country is part of loving the Faith" () ( ar, حب الوطن من الایمان '). It is not a real Hadith but was a popular slogan among Arabic speakers in Middle East in the 19th-20th centuries. It spread to China via Hui Muslim students like

who studied at

in Egypt. Hui Muslim General

Ma Bufang Ma Bufang (1903 – 31 July 1975) (, Xiao'erjing: ) was a prominent Muslim Ma clique warlord in China during the Republic of China era, ruling the province of Qinghai. His rank was Lieutenant-general. General Ma started an industrialization pro ...

and his retinue including

Ma Chengxiang Ma Chengxiang (1914–1991) (, Xiao'erjing: ) was a Chinese Muslim general in the National Revolutionary Army. He was the son of Ma Qing (馬慶) and nephew of generals Ma Buqing and Ma Bufang. A daughter of Ma Buqing was married to him. He co ...

moved to Egypt before being appointed as ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Chinese Premier

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

first met Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser at the Asian-African Conference in Bandung. In May 1956, Nasser defied U.S. pressure and displeasure by recognizing

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Zhou visited Egypt three times during his tenure. During the Suez War, on 3 November 1956, China supported Egypt's bid to take back control of the Suez Canal, 250,000 Chinese reportedly registered to serve as “volunteers” in Egypt. In the aftermath of the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

, China provided Egypt with economic aid and food aid (100.000 tons of cereals) and military equipment. Egyptian government maintained cordial relations with the China even after Nasser's successor,

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

, broke with the USSR in favor of a partnership with the U.S.,

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in ...

first visited China in 1976 as vice president, during which he was received by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

and provision of spare parts for Egypt's Soviet‐supplied Tupolev bombers and MIG fighters. In 1971 Egypt supported China's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations and it voted in favour to admit Beijing and replace Taipei. In 2012, Egyptian president

Mohamed Morsi Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012B-6 bomber and F-6 fighter to Cairo and received several

MiG-23 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generati ...

from Egypt. Egyptian navy received ships in the 1980s from China including submarines and frigates. China has also helped Egypt develop its own missile systems. The K-8E is an Egyptian variant of the Chinese

Hongdu JL-8 The Hongdu JL-8 (Nanchang JL-8), also known as the Karakorum-8 or K-8 for short, is a two-seat intermediate jet trainer and a light attack aircraft designed in the People's Republic of China by China Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporatio ...

, exported as the Karakorum-8 (or K-8) to (among others)

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The K-8E's manufacture at the

Arab Organization for Industrialization The Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) ( ar, الهيئة العربية للتصنيع) is an Egypt-based Arab military organization established in 1975 by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar to supervise the collecti ...

(AOI) Aircraft Factory began in 2000, under an agreement between the AOI and CATIC, the Chinese state-owned aerospace manufacturer, to produce a total of 60 K-8s over five years. The contract, valued at US$347.4 million, was signed in 1999 in connection with the state visit by Chinese president

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pr ...

that year. Initially, most of the parts were manufactured in China and the aircraft were assembled in Egypt, but by the end of the programme the manufacture was to be carried out entirely at the AOI Aircraft Factory. It is located in Helwan. In May 2012 six Egyptian drones of ASN-209 was built in collaboration with a Chinese defence manufacturer during the first phase and are fully operational under the

Egyptian armed forces The Egyptian Armed Forces ( arz, القُوّات المُسَلَّحَة المِصْرِيَّة, alquwwat almusalahat almisria) are the military forces of the Arab Republic of Egypt. They consist of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy, Egyptia ...

according to Hamdy Weheba, China and Egypt held first joint naval drills in June 2015. In 2018, the Egyptian air force revealed they were operating Chinese-made

CAIG Wing Loong The Chengdu GJ-1, also known as Wing Loong 1, is a Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group in the People's Republic of China. Intended for use as a surveillance and ae ...

drones.

Economic relations

Belt and Road Initiative participant map

Bilateral trade reached about $4 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, up from $3.19b in 2006. In 2010, it was worth US$7.0 billion. In 2011 Egypt was the 5th largest trading partner of China in Africa and in the first 8 months of 2012 it was the 4th. From 2000 to 2012, there are approximately 39 Chinese official development finance projects identified in Egypt through various media reports. These projects range from jointly constructing an industrial park in the Northwest Suez Economic Zone beginning June 1, 2000, to the construction of a Chinese language school in Cairo in 2002 through a US$4 million grant from the Chinese government. In 2016, Egyptian president Elsisi made a visit to China and signed a number of deals there including New Administrative Capital of Egypt. In November 2020, Egypt and China signed a protocol of cooperation to utilise and market a land plot owned by the Suez Canal Authority in Ain Sokhna.

Human rights

In July 2019, UN ambassadors of 37 countries, including Egypt, have signed a joint letter to the

UNHRC The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

defending China's treatment of

Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...

and other Muslim minority groups in the

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

region.

Western media Western media is the mass media of the Western world. During the Cold War, Western media contrasted with Soviet media. Western media has gradually expanded into developing countries (often, non-Western countries) around the world. History Th ...

outlets reported that Egypt had aided in deporting Uyghurs to China; however, in July 2017,

, Egypt's leading Islamic institution, denied that any Uyghurs had been arrested from within its campus or other buildings belonging to the organization itself. In June 2020, Egypt was one of 53 countries that backed a statement supporting the

Hong Kong national security law The Hong Kong national security law, officially the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a piece of national security legislation concerning Hong Kong. It ...

at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Education

Peking University has a long history of friendly cooperation with

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...

. As early as 1986, the two universities signed an inter-school exchange agreement, after which they have completed the renewal of the Inter-school cooperation Agreement in year 2000. On 29 December 2007, the two sides signed an implementary agreement of establishing Confucius Institute through cooperation, and held a grand opening ceremony for the new institute, which had the honor of the attendance of Mr. Wu Chunhua Chinese Ambassador in Egypt, Mr. Ali Abd el-Rahman Yousef President of Cairo University, Mr. Zhang Guoyou Vice President of Peking University and other leaders. On 18 March 2008, the Confucius Institute in Cairo University---the first Confucius Institute established both in Egypt and North Africa—started its recruitment and Chinese language courses.

Bibliography

References

External links

Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Arab Republic of Egypt
{{DEFAULTSORT:China-Egypt relations

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Bilateral relations of Egypt