To the full article posted at the The Jamestown Foundation, click the link (here)
Introduction
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
has been responsible for conducting military diplomacy since the
founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. In the 1950s,
military cooperation was limited almost entirely to other communist
nations and insurgent movements in Southeast Asia. In the late 1970s,
the scope and tenor of China’s foreign military cooperation changed with
the shift to commercial arms sales, attempts to gain some influence in
Eastern Europe, and improvement in relations with the United States
(U.S.) and Western Europe. By the 1980s, China had also developed close
military ties with Egypt, Tanzania, Sudan, Somalia, Zaire, and Zambia in
Africa. The change reflected China’s desire to counter Soviet
influence, especially in Europe, as well as to develop relations with
modern armed forces. Chinese military ties with Western European
countries were strongest with Britain, France, and Italy. Chinese
military relations with the U.S. developed rapidly in the 1980s and
included exchanges of high-level military officials and working-level
delegations in training, logistics, and education, as well as four
foreign military sales (FMS) projects
A screenshot from state media shows the supply ship Dongpinghu (Hull
960) from the PLAN’s 36th ETF to the Gulf of Aden conducting in-port
replenishment at the Port of Djibouti in December 2020. Official reports
emphasized that the supplies were purchased through domestic channels
and transported under rigorous sterilization, inspection and quarantine
measures due to the ongoing pandemic. (Source: China Military Online).