Regardless, the Chinese government has not hesitated to court the country, with some of its largest companies wading in. Shanghai Construction, for example, is completing a five-star hotel at a Cairo exhibition center following a Chinese government directive.

The Chinese are attracted to Egypt’s massive market for cheap consumer goods and an expansive and relatively cheap labor force. Egypt’s large number of preferential trade agreements with Europe, Africa and the Middle East, along with the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most important waterways, also make it a prime location, said Chen Lin, the commercial counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Egypt.

“A lot of Chinese manufacturers are under pressure to lower costs,” Mr. Lin said, “and Egypt specifically has a very rich human resources to meet that demand.”

Trade between the two countries was $8.8 billion last year, up 40 percent from 2008, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce. China’s exports to Egypt came to $5.4 billion last year, making it the second-largest supplier to the country after the United States, which exported $6.3 billion, according to U.N. data.

Though China’s exports significantly outweigh its foreign direct investment into Egypt, which stood at $47.8 million last year, Mr Lin said the growth rate of such investment was rising faster than exports.

One area that appeals to the Chinese is automobile assembly. Ghabbour Auto, the Egyptian auto assembler that controls a third of the country’s passenger car market, said this year that it would begin putting together and distributing cars across North Africa from China’s Geely, the carmaker that bought Volvo in 2010.

Ghabbour already imports and distributes Hyundai vehicles in Iraq as part of a $80 million joint venture. The company plans to work with at least three or four other Chinese companies this year, said Menatella Sadek, director of corporate finance and investments at Ghabbour.