China builds ‘soft power’ with Egypt as Jinping cultivates relationships with Middle East allies

On the surface, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Egypt this week is a run-of-the-mill opportunity for two countries to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties.

But there is deep subtext to the meeting between Xi and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi : China, the United States’ top global rival, is cultivating an extensive relationship with one of America’s key allies in the Middle East as it moves to expand its influence in the rapidly changing region.

Xi aims to present China as a stabilizer in the region and contrast it with the United States, which for decades has been militarily entangled there — its six-month war with Iran being just the latest example.

“China continues to build up its soft power reserves while the United States self-sabotages its own stock,” Amr Hamzawy, director of the Washington-based Carnegie Middle East Program, wrote in a paper earlier this year along with Kathryn Selfe, a former fellow at the program.

Xi arrived on Tuesday evening at Cairo airport, which was adorned with Chinese and Egyptian flags.

El-Sissi and military guards greeted him on the tarmac with a red-carpet ceremony.

In wide-ranging talks Wednesday, Xi said Cairo and Beijing should jointly oppose what he called “unilateralism and acts of bullying,” according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese leader also called for the two countries to “work together for a more just and equitable global governance system,” Xinhua reported.

Xi’s first visit to the region since 2022 Xi, who visited the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza, is on his first trip to Egypt in a decade, the first time he has been in the region since visiting Saudi Arabia in 2022.

El-Sissi has visited China multiple times in recent years.

The leaders marked 70 years of diplomatic ties by publishing friendly opinion pieces on Tuesday in Egypt’s state-run newspapers.

Xi wrote that Beijing and Cairo should “expand the scope of pragmatic collaboration” through development.

El-Sissi lauded China’s investments in Egypt and reiterated Cairo’s support of China’s claim that Taiwan is part of its territory .

Egypt views its growing relationship with China as a way to diversify its strategic partnerships.