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Sino–Angolan relations are based on an emerging trade relationship. Angola is China's biggest trading partner in Africa, but the United States is by far Angola's greatest partner in economic and military aid.[1]
During Kenya's independence ceremonies in 1963, Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi told Jonas Savimbi, the then-Secretary-General of the Union of Peoples of Northern Angola rebel group, that the PRC would give the UPNA "large-scale military aid". Three years later, UNITA separatists, led by Savimbi, attacked Portuguese workers in Cassamba. Armed with only ten, NATO 7.62 rifles, purchased with Chinese government money, the attack unsurprisingly failed to stop timber operations and Portuguese authorities killed several UNITA members.[2]
On December 3, 1975, in a meeting with US and Chinese officials including Deng Xiaoping (Vice Premier and deputy of Mao Zedong), Chiao Kuan-hua (Foreign Minister), President Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State / Foreign Minister), Brent Scowcroft (Assistant to the President for NSA) and George H. W. Bush (Chief of US Liaison Office in Peking) international issues were discussed. To concerns raised by the Chinese about US entreaties to continue their participation in Angola because of South Africa's involvement Kissinger responds, that the US is prepared to "push out South Africa as soon as an alternative military force can be created". Yet, the Chinese still support FLNA and UNITA against MPLA. tt is in this round that President Ford says to the Chinese: "We had nothing to do with the South African involvement, and we will take action to get South Africa out, provided a balance can be maintained for their not being in." He also said that he had approved 35 million US dollars more (in support of the north) above what had been done before. The round discusses and agreed who should support FNLA or UNITA by which means and in what manner considering the sensitivities of the neighbouring countries.[3]
Agostinho Neto, the President of Angola from 1975 to 1979, condemned the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in February 1979.[4]
Angola established relations with the People's Republic of China in 1983.[5]
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Angola in June 2006, offering a US$9 billion loan for infrastructure improvements in return for petroleum. The PRC has invested heavily in Angola since the end of the civil war in 2002.[6] João Manuel Bernardo, the current ambassador of Angola to China, visited the PRC in November 2007.[7] In April 2008, a PRC-flagged ship, the An Yue Jiang, has been diverted to Luanda, the Angolan capital city and main port, after dockworkers in Durban, South Africa, refused to offload its cargo of an arms shipment ordered by the government of Zimbabwe, whose detractors fear will use the weapons against the opposition in the aftermath of a disputed election.[8]
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