CAIRO — Egypt’s Minister of Education Tarek Shawki signed a cooperation protocol with China’s Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang to include Mandarin Chinese as an elective foreign language in Egyptian schools.
The agreement, signed Sept. 7, is part of growing Egyptian-Chinese relations as China seeks to expand its presence in one of the Middle East and North Africa's largest countries. But an Egyptian-Chinese partnership does run the risk of displeasing the United States in light of its trade war with China.