China’s Relations with the Arab World Post Bandung Conference: An overview 1955 - 1975

China’s relationship with the Arab World; an overview 1955-1975 address China’s interest in the Middle East specifically the Arab Countries post Bandung conference, which initiated the beginning of the Sino-Arab. During the 20 years period from 1955-1975, the Sino-Arab relations shifts from an ideological driven relationship to an economic and pragmatic one. This paper will describe the commencement of this relationship mentioning Egypt and Palestine as the key countries, addressing the importance of both countries and their influence on the Sino-Arab relations. In addition to the shift of policies and the key drivers that influenced such a shift and analysing China’s interest in the Arabian Gulf countries. The research methodology depended on obtaining archives: one from China’s National Library on People’s Republic of China’s relationship with the Middle East from 1956-1975 and another from the Kuwaiti National Archives on Kuwait, Egypt and other Arab countries’ relations with the People’s Republic of China. In addition, conducting interviews with prominent personalities from both PRC and the Arab world on this relationship try to answer. Did China play a role in the realities of the Arab world? Is there evidence of its support to nationalist movements? Describing how the relationship started and how it was shaped and so forth. In conclusion, the Sino-Arab relations post Bandung describes an experimental foreign policy in a cold war period. China strived to break its international isolation by adopting a foreign policy that aims to bring China close to Africa and Asian countries. On one hand, China aimed to lead the region and influence the non aligned countries in order to challenge the existing world order which brought China attention closer to the Arab states. Furthermore, China did play several roles in supporting emotionally or materially the Arab nationalist and communist movements in the Arab world. On another, Arab States were very cautious in dealing with China; they wanted China’s support to confront the west and they were careful with China’s interventions in their domestic issues