President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received Chinese President Xi Jinping today, Tuesday, who is visiting Egypt at a highly important juncture in the course of relations between Cairo and Beijing, coinciding with the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The visit opens new horizons for a partnership that is no longer limited to politics and trade, but has extended to industry, technology, and artificial intelligence.
Since Egypt established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China on May 30, 1956, becoming the first Arab and African country to take this step, relations between the two countries have become firmly established beyond the boundaries of diplomacy. China’s supportive position toward Egypt during the Suez Crisis in the same year contributed to building trust, allowing relations to later develop into strategic cooperation and a comprehensive strategic partnership.
In 2016, Xi Jinping’s visit to Cairo gave relations a new impetus, coinciding with the expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative, bringing the partnership into a phase more closely connected to investment, infrastructure, and manufacturing.
Egypt’s importance to China lies in its strategic location: it connects Asia, Africa, and Europe, hosts the Suez Canal, and possesses ports, industrial zones, and a large market. In return, China possesses a huge industrial and technological base seeking markets and production centers.
Thus, interests converged: China possesses industrial power, while Egypt possesses the location that connects markets.
This has translated into Chinese investments and projects in Egypt, particularly in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, in addition to projects in infrastructure, transportation, energy, the new administrative capital, and other fields, gradually moving relations from trade toward investment, production, and manufacturing.
The statements made by Chinese President Xi Jinping in his article published in Al-Ahram newspaper are particularly significant. He described Egypt as an important trade and investment partner for China in the Arab world and Africa, and emphasized that Egypt, given its Arab and African weight, plays an important role in advancing cooperation between China and Arab and African countries.
He also pointed out that Egypt is among the first countries to participate in cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, and called for deeper cooperation in education, science, technology, and health, reaffirming the principle of mutual benefit and shared gains.
These statements reveal that Beijing does not view Egypt merely as a market, but rather as a pivotal partner in the Arab world and Africa, and an important base for expanding economic and technological cooperation.
The most prominent development at the current stage is the entry of artificial intelligence and data centers into the heart of the partnership, with the emergence of an offer from Huawei to establish specialized artificial intelligence data centers in Egypt, reflecting a move toward cooperation in one of the most important fields of future economic and technological power.
The importance of this step goes beyond simply possessing advanced equipment; data and the ability to process it have become elements of power. This infrastructure can support healthcare, agriculture, transportation, industry, and government services, and open the way for developing artificial intelligence applications that serve Egyptian needs.
But technology alone does not create power; the true value lies in possessing knowledge. Therefore, investments must be accompanied by training human resources, developing scientific research, transferring technology, and linking universities with industry, so that investments are transformed into sustainable national capabilities.
China wants Egypt’s strategic location and the Suez Canal, a gateway to Arab, African, and European markets, and centers for manufacturing and investment, in addition to strengthening its economic and technological presence in the region.
Egypt needs Chinese investments, technology, the transfer of expertise, and manufacturing, which can help it build a productive base capable of competing.
It is a partnership based on mutual interests, but its success for Egypt depends on achieving real added value and moving from importing technology to localizing, developing, and producing it.
The importance of this partnership is increasing amid the growing competition between China and the United States in the fields of economics, technology, artificial intelligence, supply chains, maritime routes, and international influence. Egypt, by virtue of its location, the Suez Canal, and its Arab and African weight, has become part of the calculations of the major powers.
But Cairo is not required to choose between China and the United States; rather, it must choose Egypt’s interests and diversify its partnerships in a way that strengthens the independence of national decision-making and gives Egypt the greatest possible benefits.
After seventy years of relations, Egypt and China are no longer facing a traditional trade relationship, but rather a partnership extending into industry, technology, artificial intelligence, and new strategic fields.
China will not make Egypt a great power simply through investment, and Egypt will not become a major power simply by importing technology. Power is built through science, industry, the economy, people, and knowledge.
If Egypt succeeds in transforming investments into industry, technology into knowledge, and data centers into national capabilities, the Chinese partnership can become one of the important tools in building Egypt’s economic, technological, and regional power.
Seventy years of friendship have brought Cairo and Beijing to a new stage… a stage in which the question is no longer: What does China want from Egypt? But rather: What can Egypt achieve from this partnership?
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