<P> Angola--China relations date back to pre-independent Angola . Today they are based on an emerging trade relationship . As of 2011, Angola is China's second biggest trading partner in Africa . </P> <P> During Kenya's independence ceremonies in 1963, Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi told Jonas Savimbi, the Secretary - General of the Union of Peoples of Northern Angola, that his country would give the UPNA "large - scale military aid". Three years later, UNITA separatists, led by Savimbi, attacked Portuguese workers in Cassamba . Armed with only ten NATO 7.62 rifles, purchased with Chinese aid, the attack failed to stop timber operations and Portuguese colonial authorities killed several UNITA members . </P> <P> On December 3, 1975, in a meeting with U.S. and Chinese officials, including Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping, Foreign Minister Chiao Kuan - hua, President Gerald Ford, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Peking George H.W. Bush Chinese entreaties about U.S. continued participation in Angola via South Africa, resulted in Kissinger responding that the US is prepared to "push out South Africa as soon as an alternative military force can be created". Yet, the Chinese still supported the FLNA and UNITA against the MPLA . Ford then said: "We had nothing to do with the South African involvement and we will take action to get South Africa out, provided a balance can be maintained for their not being in ." He also said that he had approved US $35 million more in support of the north above what had been done before . Discussions entailed who should support FNLA or UNITA, by which means and in what manner, considering the sensitivities of the neighbouring countries . </P> <P> President of Angola Agostinho Neto condemned the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in February 1979 . </P>

China's involvement in the angolan civil war