China–Greece relations


Chinese-Greek relations are the relations between the People's Republic of China and the Hellenic Republic. China has an embassy in Athens. Greece has an embassy in Beijing and 3 general consulates in Guangzhou, Hong-Kong and since 2005 in Shanghai. The Port of Piraeus is important from a geostrategic view for China, as it helps China's transactions with the whole of Europe. Thousands of Chinese people are living in Greece inside the Overseas Chinese context.

History of bilateral relations

Ancient

Ancient Chinese people contact with Bactrian Greeks. Dayuan, described in the Chinese historical works of Records of the Grand Historian and the Book of Han. It is mentioned in the accounts of the famous Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 130 BCE and the numerous embassies that followed him into Central Asia. The country of Dayuan is generally accepted as relating to the Ferghana Valley, and its Greek city Alexandria Eschate. These Chinese accounts describe the Dayuan as urbanized dwellers with Caucasian features, living in walled cities and having "customs identical to those of the Greco-Bactrians". Strabo writes that Bactrian Greeks "extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni". The War of the Heavenly Horses was a war between Dayuan and the Han dynasty.
Following the ancient Roman embassies to China recorded in ancient Chinese histories, there appear to have been contacts between the Byzantine Empire and several dynasties of China, beginning with the Tang Dynasty. From Chinese records it is known that Michael VII Doukas of Fu lin dispatched a diplomatic mission to China that eventually arrived in 1081, during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty, centuries before Marco Polo's expendition. Kublai Khan, the Mongol-ruler who founded the Yuan dynasty of China not only maintained correspondence with the Byzantine Greeks but hosted some of them at his court in Khanbaliq. The History of Yuan records that a certain Ai-sie from the country of Fu lin, initially in the service of Güyük Khan, was well-versed in Western languages and had expertise in the fields of Greek medicine and astronomy that convinced Kublai Khan to offer him a position as the director of medical and astronomical boards. Kublai Khan eventually honored Ai-sie with the noble title of Prince of Fu lin. In his biography within the History of Yuan his children are mentioned by their Chinese names, which bear similarities to the Christian names Elias, Luke, and Antony, with a daughter named A-na-si-sz.

Modern

During the Korean War the two countries were enemies and their forces fought each other. The Greek Expeditionary Force was part of the UN forces.

Establishment of relations

In 1955 Beata Kitsikis founded in Athens the Greece-P.R. of China Association. Her husband, Polytechnicum professor and an EDA leader and member of Parliament, Nicolas Kitsikis, helped her in her endeavor, thus establishing the first unofficial relations between Greece and the People's Republic of China. Their son, Dimitri Kitsikis a sinologist, professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, often traveled to China establishing close relations with Chairman Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai and in 2007 wrote, in Greek, an extensive "Comparative History of Greece and China from Antiquity to the Present Day".
Both countries established diplomatic relations on June 6, 1972. The late Prime Minister of Greece Konstantinos Karamanlis visited China in 1979 and was received by China's leader at that time Hua Guofeng. Konstantinos Karamanlis was the first visiting head of Greek government.

European Union era

China currently has 51% ownership in the Port of Piraeus through COSCO.
In 2014, 78 Chinese citizens were among those evacuated from Libya by the Greek navy frigate Salamis. China thanked Greece for its help.
Greece, under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, prevented the European Union from issuing statements condemning Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and its human rights record, moves widely attributed as a response to Chinese investment in the Port of Piraeus.
On the 12th of April, 2019, Greece officially joined China's 'Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries', becoming the 17th European Nation to join the initiative, making it 17+1. This move has further developed relations between China and Greece. The hope is for an Athens-Budapest rail line, going through Belgrade and Skopje.
In 2019 Bank of China opened its first branch in Greece.

Cultural connections

gave Luo Niansheng the order to write the first ancient Greek-Chinese dictionary. Luo Nian Sheng translated since the 1950s also all major classic Greek works into Chinese.

Bilateral visits

In October 2009 Cosco leased for 30 years part of the Port of Piraeus, the cargo level two years later was three times higher than before.
In 2010 a $123 million contract between Helios Plaza and BCEGI, a subsidiary of Beijing Construction Engineering Group, real estate company and construction contractor. Helios is developing a hotel and commercial complex for tourism in Piraeus, Athens' largest port town. Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecom invested with Hellenic Telecommunications Organization.
In March 2015 Deputy Greek Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias paid an official visit to China on 25 March 2015. Within this context, Minister Kotzias met with the Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, Wang Yi.

Citations