An illusory alliance: revolutionary legitimacy and Sino-Algerian relations, 1958?1962

Beginning in 1958, the communist regime of the People's Republic of China forged an alliance with the provisional government of the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). China's willingness to patronise the FLN posed a sharp challenge to France and other Western powers, but it was in the domestic politics of China and Algeria that this partnership had its most profound effect. Embroiled in the Great Leap Forward, the Chinese government used its support for Algeria to reaffirm its claim to embody a genuinely revolutionary ideology. The FLN, which was eager to legitimise its control over the Algerian nationalist movement, relied on the Chinese government to endorse its political and military strategy. Thus, the relationship between China and the FLN was for both sides a convenient means by which to articulate ideologies of nationalism, unity, and revolution.