Chinese relations, which began 18 years ago. On the basis of its major role and also as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China stood by the Arab issues in the United Nations and supported all the resolutions related to the Middle East and Arab countries on a number of different occasions. The Riyadh-based Al-Jazeerah Newspaper mentioned about the visit of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to China in January 2006 and the visit of the Chinese President Hu Jintao in April of the same year. This is the second Chinese presidential visit to Saudi Arabia, the paper said. It noted the positive indicators of bilateral ties and referred to the hike in the volume of trade as Saudi Arabia is now China's largest trading partner in West Asia and Africa since the past eight years, with the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries exceeding an amount of $ 41.8 billion in 2008. "China is very keen in investing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As many as 62 Chinese companies with 22,000 employees are currently working in Saudi Arabia. The projects under construction now totals 105 projects," the paper added. "The Kingdom, in turn, is keen on cementing further relations with China. There are 21 million Muslims, with more than 30,000 mosques in China. It is not surprising that the Kingdom is concerned with the Muslim community in China. The Kingdom received 21,000 Chinese pilgrims in the last Hajj season," the paper concluded in its editorial. --MORE
