Cairo has always mastered the art of political acrobatics, playing East and West off each other to ensure its own profit. During the Cold War, it was former President Gamal Abd El-Nasser who first “shocked the West by approaching the Soviet Union, buying military equipment through Czechoslovakia, and igniting fears of a Middle Eastern arms race,” according to Foreign Policy. Six decades later, Cairo is once again seeking to strengthen Eastern ties with Beijing while maintaining a complex relationship with Western allies and the US. Earlier this month, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing to review the state of bilateral relations between Egypt and China. The two leaders discussed a myriad of political and economic issues in an effort to strengthen on-going cooperation. China and Egypt have “shared similar visions and strategies in defending their own interests,” stated Chinese leader Xi Jinping on President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s seventh visit to the Chinese capital since taking office in 2014. According to the Associated Press in Beijing, this timely encounter comes at an opportune moment as Al-Sisi’s government is looking to fortify Chinese relations amid…
