Ideological Differences in the Sino-Ethiopian Relations from the Early 1950s to the Late 1960s

Abstract

Ethiopia and China have built strategic diplomatic relations over the last three decades. However, before growing to build arguably one of the most fruitful diplomatic relations of the twentieth century, the diplomatic relations between the world’s second-biggest economy and the country with the fastest economic growth in Africa knew a “dark” period between the 1950s going through the late 1960s. Incidentally, that was when China established fruitful diplomatic relations with many African countries. The present study analyzes the foreign policy model put in place by the then Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, a model established from the 1940s, solidified in the 1950s going until the decay of Haile Selassie’s hegemony in the late 1960s, and how this model did not fit the model adopted by their Chinese counterpart. The foreign policy implemented by China from the 1950s was incongruent with Haile Selassie’s dream for Ethiopia’s modernization inspired by the capitalists of the West. The paper examines the dynamics of the Sino-Ethiopian relations during the period that both China and Ethiopia strived to gain international recognition and explores the reasons that hindered China and Ethiopia from building fruitful diplomatic relations. From the perspective of the history of the Sino-Ethiopian diplomatic relations, the paper analyses the current state of the Sino-Ethiopian relations in Ethiopia under conflict.