After World War II, the Republic of China maintained diplomatic relations with only a few Middle Eastern countries, one of which was Saudi Arabia.

The Republic of China lost control of the mainland and decamped to the island of Taiwan, formerly a Qing region that was then under colonial rule by the Empire of Japan until 1945 when it was acquired by the ROC.

[1] As Nationalist China was so reliant on Saudi Arabia's oil supplies, the ROC put a significant amount of effort into maintaining relations.

Taiwanese pilots scored a number of kills and the air-defense and early warning radar teams took casualties from aerial attacks.

Then, in 1973, the two countries signed an agricultural cooperation agreement, in which Taiwan provided Saudi Arabia with a number of assistance programs, including irrigation, mechanized cultivation, soil, meteorology, crop rotation, and fishing technology.

In 1973, Taiwan's largest heavy construction company, Ret-Ser Engineering Agency (RSEA), began working on the 110-kilometer Mecca to Hawiya highway in Saudi Arabia.

[12] Similarly, Taiwan maintains a Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.