When Egypt's President Anwar Sadat canceled his country's friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in March, he gave China a long-awaited chance to develop its own special relationship with Egypt. Within days after Sadat's action, Peking announced that it would give Sadat 30 new engines for Egypt's aging Soviet-built MIGSĀa direct slap at the Soviets, who had refused to supply spare parts for the planes and had forbidden India to do so.
The romance between China and Egypt came into full bloom last week. The two countries signed a pact under which Peking, in addition to supplying an undisclosed amount...