Xi Jinping seeks to boost Egypt influence with rare overseas trip

China's President Xi Jinping visited Egypt this week in a rare overseas trip, as Beijing looks to deepen its relationships in Africa and the Global South at a time when the influence of the United States in the region is perceived by many to be waning. Xi's visit to Cairo saw a flurry of investments announced. Chinese tyre maker ZC Rubber announced plans to invest $500n to develop a manufacturing complex in Sokhna, a port town on the Gulf of Suez, while the two governments also agreed to expand the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA). This is a Chinese-run industrial park inside the broader Suez Canal Economic Zone on the Red Sea. The park is home to major Chinese manufacturers such as Jushi, a leading producer of fibreglass which has invested over $600m in its Egyptian facilities, and Midea, one of the world's largest producers of home appliances. TEDA has become a vital base from which Chinese companies can export goods across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The zone is reported to have attracted total investment surpassing $4.7bn and to have recorded sales of more than $7.3bn. Other deals include China agreeing two financing agreements - worth around $665m in total - for extensions to the light-rail network connecting Cairo to the new urban developments, such as the "New Administrative Capital," a megacity under construction to the east of Cairo that is designed to serve as the country's new political and financial centre. Egypt's Mansour Group also signed a memorandum of understanding with China's Tianneng Battery Group to explore manufacturing products such as lithium batteries and electric vehicle battery cells in Egypt. China's strategic opportunity More broadly, Xi's trip to Egypt is seen as symbolically significant, not least because the number of foreign trips he undertakes has fallen dramatically in recent years. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Xi averaged around 14 overseas trips per year; this dropped to just four in 2023 and six in 2025. Xi's visit to Egypt is part of a broader trip - including stops in Kyrgyzstan, India, and then Washington DC - that represents his most extensive foreign travel since the pandemic. Julian Gewirtz, who served as the senior director for China and Taiwan Affairs at the White House National Security Council in the Biden administration, tells African Business that Xi senses an opportunity to cement Chinese influence on the continent given the growing perception of the US as a less attractive partner. "Xi's burst of overseas diplomacy fits Beijing's growing sense of strategic opportunity, showing that China has friends and options around the world at precisely the moment Washington is alienating many of its allies," he says. "Xi is spending much of September cultivating institutions and relationships meant to expand Beijing's influence across Eurasia, the Middle East, and Africa, then will fly to Washington to be welcomed by an American president eager to celebrate their relationship," Gewirtz adds."For Xi, that sequence is not a contradiction but rather it is the point." An alternative to the US Current US policy in Africa has proved controversial in some quarters as the Trump administration pursues a "very transactional" approach to the continent. The US has pushed to secure access to Africa's critical minerals, sought to make health aid dependent on the transfer of Africans' data for use in American AI models, and struck immigration deals with African countries to accept deportees who are not necessarily citizens of those countries. Meanwhile, the US-Israeli war in Iran is also seen to have destabilised the region and weakened African economies. It is in that context that President Xi sees an opportunity to position China as a more attractive partner. Speaking in Cairo, Xi called for the two countries to "oppose unilateralism and bullying acts" and promote "a more just and equitable global governance system."