ABSTRACT
The three case studies illustrate the changes which took place in Chinese foreign policy during 1955–75. There were three main phases of Chinese policy towards the Arab World: 1955–66, 1967–70, and 1970–75. China’s support for Arab nationalist movements was closely linked with Nasir’s leadership of the Arab world: for example, its support for the Imamate cause and the Algerian revolution in the late 1950s and the early 1960s was in tandem with Nasir’s. Publicising the Sino-Soviet dispute, which continued at a low level from 1960 to 1966 because of internal Chinese developments involving pressing questions, theoretical and practical, on how to build socialism, further hampered China’s diplomatic thrust. The Third World, the Chinese claim, is under-developed, poor, and faces immense economic, political and cultural obstacles, as did China. Power in China was gained through armed struggle, as the history of the Chinese Communist Party attests.
