Ahmed Salam
Egyptian-Chinese relations have witnessed a major boom in all fields, since signing the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Egypt and China in 2014, especially since this partnership is based on mutual respect and fruitful cooperation in various fields. This comes based on the vision of the wise political leadership of Presidents Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Xi Jinping, two leaders who are adept at reading the challenges of regional and international reality, and aspire to a promising and bright future for their countries.
The agreement between Egypt and China on a comprehensive strategic partnership more than a decade ago was the culmination of the historical relations between two countries with a civilization deeply rooted in history. With the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Egypt and China, many positive results and energy have appeared on the horizon, which the agreement brought for the benefit of economic, social, cultural and media development in Egypt.
Both Egypt and China are keen to work within the framework of building a common destiny between them, and also to work on enhancing coordination and exchanging political, economic and cultural visions. This is confirmed by the increase in visits by senior officials from the two countries, the most recent of which was the visit of Mr. Shen Haixiong, Deputy Head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chairman of the China Media Group and Member of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. It is worth noting that the China Media Group operates 51 television channels, including 9 international channels and 22 local radio channels in China, in addition to broadcasting programs in 80 languages to viewers around the world, as well as three major news websites, the first major laboratory for 8K ultra-high-definition video and audio, and the first media platform with 5G technology at the national level. There is no doubt that such visits, within the framework of the great cooperation between Egypt and China, benefit both sides in benefiting from tourism, media, cultural and cinematic experiences and serious cooperation between the two countries. In this context, I was honored to participate in a large celebration held last weekend in one of the oldest historical hotels in the pyramid. It was a successful choice due to the importance of this hotel in the memory of China and the Chinese, as it witnessed the signing of the Cairo Declaration on November 27, 1943, following the tripartite summit hosted by the Egyptian capital, Cairo, in which US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Armies, Chiang Kai-shek, participated. Among the provisions of the Cairo Declaration were that rights be returned to their owners, that Japan be stripped of all the lands it had occupied and stolen since World War I, and that islands and lands such as Manchuria, Formosa, Pescadores, and Hong Kong be returned to China. The celebration was attended by the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Ambassador Liao Li Chang, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China and its representative to the League of Arab States, Hussein Zein, Chairman of the National Media Authority, Ambassador Omar Selim, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Cultural Relations, the great artist Hussein Fahmy, Chairman of the Cairo Film Festival, a representative of culture and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the Chairman of Egyptian Television and the Chairman of Egyptian Radio, in addition to senior figures in the fields of economy, culture, media, art and tourism from both sides. This celebration coincided with the holding of the temporary exhibition of Egyptian antiquities “The Top of the Pyramid: Ancient Egyptian Civilization”, which was recently opened at the Shanghai Museum in China. It is the largest exhibition of its kind outside Egypt and in the world to display ancient Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, and it was met with great interest, especially in light of the Chinese people’s love, passion and appreciation for Egyptian civilization and culture, as it was attended by approximately 70 thousand visitors during the first week of its opening, which confirms that countries with ancient civilizations, including Egypt and China, have a lot of history, culture, foundations and rules that can be built upon to achieve more strategic partnerships. Mr. Sherif Fathy, the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, expressed his aspiration for a great future of cooperation between the Egyptian and Chinese sides, through several axes, including adopting the idea of holding other temporary, mobile antiquities exhibitions in China, and increasing the promotional campaigns for Egypt carried out by the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Promotion in the Chinese mainland, as well as for the Chinese side to introduce the Egyptian people to China and its various tourism components more, which contributes to enriching and increasing tourism exchange between the two countries. At the same time, Mr. Shen Haixiong, Chairman of China Media Group, spoke about Egypt and China being two countries with ancient civilizations and that there have been friendly exchanges between the Egyptian and Chinese peoples dating back a long time, noting that he knows a lot about Egypt through school curricula in China, and that this is the first time he has visited Cairo and the Middle East, during which he learned a lot about Egypt and felt very close to it, as he visited the Pyramid of Khufu, the Nile River and the Cairo Tower, stressing that the joint construction of the “Belt and Road” initiative has allowed two great countries to communicate side by side and move forward, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s statement during his official visit to Egypt in January 2016 that China and Egypt are “true friends and good brothers,” and to the talks held last May between Presidents Sisi and Xi in Beijing, which continued to inject strong momentum into improving and modernizing the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. Mr. Shen pointed to the role of the media in enhancing exchanges and ties between the two countries, which is what the China Central Radio and Television Corporation is doing, pointing to the cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism to film the documentary “Masks and Treasures” which was launched during the celebration, as well as the great turnout achieved by the Egyptian Antiquities Exhibition currently being held in Shanghai.
The visit of the high-ranking Chinese official represented an important opportunity to inject more momentum into the field of media cooperation, not only between Egypt and China, but also between the Arab and Chinese sides. Mr. Shen’s visit to Cairo resulted in the signing of several agreements and cooperation protocols between Egypt and China in the fields of tourism, media and cinema. At the Arab level, the Chinese official discussed, during his meeting with Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the League in Cairo, the promising prospects for Arab-Chinese cooperation in the field of media, in addition to discussing preparations for the second Arab-Chinese summit scheduled to be held in 2026 in Beijing. The meeting witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the Chinese-Arab digital archive initiative, and Mr. Aboul Gheit presented the Chairman of the China Media Group with a certificate of honor from the Arab League, in appreciation of the group’s contributions to the field of media at the international level.
* The writer:
# Former Egyptian Media Advisor in Beijing
# Expert in Chinese Affairs
# Former Undersecretary of the Office of the Chairman of SIS
