20th Century
The Republic of China under the Kuomintang had established relations with Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. The Chinese government sponsored students like Wang Jingzhai and Muhammad Ma Jian to go the Al-Azhar University to study. Pilgrims also made the Hajj to Mecca from China.
Chinese Muslims were sent to Saudi Arabia and Egypt to denounce the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Fuad Muslim Library in China was named after King Fuad I of Egypt by the Chinese Muslim Ma Songting.
In 1939 Isa Yusuf Alptekin and Ma Fuliang were sent by the Kuomintang to the Middle eastern countries such as Egypt, Turkey, and Syria to gain support for the Chinese War against Japan.
Egypt maintained relations until 1956, when Gamal Abdel Nasser cut off relations and established them with the communist People's Republic of China instead. Ma Bufang, who was then living in Egypt, then was ordered to move to Saudi Arabia, and became the Republic of China ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Ambassador Wang Shi-ming was a Chinese Muslim, and the Republic of China ambassador to Kuwait. The Republic of China also maintained relations with Libya, and Saudi Arabia.
By the 1990s all Arab states cut off ties with the Republic of China and established ties with the People's Republic of China instead.
The relations between China and the Arab League as an organization, officially started in 1956, yet it was in 1993, when the Arab League opened its first Office in China, when former Secretary general Essmat Abdel Megeed went to an official Visit to Beijing, in 1996, the Chinese president Jiang Zemin visited the Arab League headquarters during his visit in Cairo, to become the first Chinese leader to have an official visit for the Arab League.
Read more about this topic: Sino-Arab Relations, History
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“The gods help them that help themselves.”
—Aesop (6th century B.C.)