tanzania railway cooperation

China–Tanzania relations are the foreign relations between China and Tanzania. China established diplomatic relations with Tanganyika and Zanzibar on December 9, 1961, and December 11, 1963, respectively. When Tanganyika and Zanzibar were united and became Tanzania on April 26, 1964, China extended its diplomatic ties to it.
Tanganyika became the tenth African state to recognize the People's Republic of China in 1964 and the first to do it within days of independence. Military and political unrest in the 1960s in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar further strengthened ties between the two countries. On January 12, 1964, the Zanzibari Revolution dramatically increased Chinese influence on the island as China quickly recognized the new regime and provided development assistance and military aid. Additionally, the mutiny of the Tanganyikan army on January 19, 1964, led President Nyerere to request external military assistance to rebuild his army which, was answered first by the Chinese, who became primary suppliers of military assistance to the Tanzania People's Defense Force. Moreover, Tanzania's resistance to alignment with either cold war superpower and continued emphasis on the liberation of Southern Africa created hostility with the West. In 1970, China became the major supplier of military assistance to the Tanzanian armed forces and became the largest bilateral source of development aid.
H.E. Benjamin W. Mkapa, the former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, described Tanzania-China relations as “transcended the traditional government to government contacts and extended to people to people cooperation, to the extent that the people of Tanzania and China call each other ‘rafiki’ which means ‘friend’ in Kiswahili”.

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