[citation needed] China has been variously viewed by the Third World as a friend and ally, a competitor for markets and loans, a source of economic assistance, a regional power intent on dominating Asia, and a "candidate superpower" with such privileges as a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

[3] In the first years after the founding of the People's Republic, Chinese statements echoed the Soviet view that the world was divided into two camps, the forces of socialism and those of imperialism, with "no third road" possible.

[citation needed] The Bandung Conference in 1955, at which Zhou Enlai led the Chinese delegation, was an important milestone for China's foreign relations.

[4]: 80 During the 1960s China cultivated ties with Third World countries and insurgent groups in an attempt to encourage "wars of national liberation" and revolution and to forge an international united front against both superpowers.

Such suspicions were fed, for example, by Zhou Enlai's statement in the early 1960s that the potential for revolution in Africa was "excellent" and by the publication of Lin Biao's essay "Long Live the Victory of People's War!"

[8][9] China's major foreign policy statement during this time was Mao's Theory of the Three Worlds, which was announced at the UN in 1974 by Deng Xiaoping.

Its growing opposition to superpower hegemony was exemplified by such world events as the Arab nations' control of oil prices, Egypt's expulsion of Soviet aid personnel in 1972, and the United States withdrawal from Vietnam.

Until the late 1970s, the Chinese principles of sovereignty, opposition to hegemony, and self-reliance coincided with the goals of the movement for a new international economic order.

Chinese support for changes in the economic order stressed the role of collective self-reliance among the countries of the Third World, or "South-South Cooperation," in the 1980s.

Beijing increasingly based its foreign economic relations with the Third World on equality and mutual benefit, expressed by a shift toward trade and joint ventures and away from grants and interest-free loans.

[citation needed] China has a major role in fostering cooperation among the global south countries in the area of climate change and clean energy.

[11]: 35 The "Ten, Hundred, Thousand" program is China's overarching initiative for South-South cooperation in addressing climate change.

A number of North African states are dual members of both CASCF and FOCAC: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia.

[14]: 59  CASCF membership consists of China and the Arab League, which officially represents its twenty-two member states as a relatively unified body.

[15] One primary motivation for involvement in third world conflicts for PRC and ROC was to gain influence and legitimacy, claiming to be the only 'China' while undermining other side.