Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Cairo later this week, marking his first official state visit to Egypt. Over the past two years, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has worked to diversify Egypt’s international partnerships away from its reliance on the United States by building strong relations with France, Russia and now China. However, the nature of Sino-Egyptian relations must be approached from a different perspective than that of France or Russia. For one, military cooperation between the two countries is practically non-existent and building such cooperation would require much time and resources. It is far more practical and efficient for Egypt to rely on the United States, Europe and Russia for defense and national security issues. In addition, the Chinese have learned from America’s previous wars in the region that military involvement is likely to backfire. Clearly, present Sino-Egyptian relations are largely based on trade and investments. China is Egypt’s largest exporter, with USD 7.69 billion worth of Chinese products being imported by Egypt in 2013. Chinese companies are investing heavily in the Suez Canal Development Corridor project, as well as in other infrastructure and energy projects. However, a relationship…
