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Egyptians in China feel the fury of events unfolding back home

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Lining the halls at the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing are faded photographs of Sino-Egyptian diplomatic visits. Outlasting four Chinese presidents, who have come and gone since the early 1980s, is Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, remarked Egyptian national Mehdat at a recent Egyptian National Day celebration.

'Next year, Hu Jintao will be out of office [as the Communist Party chief]. Who knows how many more pictures of [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak they will put up,' he said, with reference to the embassy photos.

Protests, growing to boiling point on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, affect Egyptian nationals like Mehdat, who live and work in China.

Community members said China's Egyptian population had grown substantially after many found it nearly impossible to obtain working visas to the United States, post-9/11. Three months after the attack and America's subsequent backlash against parts of the Arab world, China established the Chinese Arab Friendship Association, cultivating ties to the Middle East, a region it now counts among its best trading partners.

Arab enterprise, much of which is Egyptian-owned, has popped up from Beijing to Shenzhen.

Last Tuesday night at Beijing's 1001 Nights, a popular watering hole for Arab businessmen and diplomats, one Syrian businessman received a phone call from an Egyptian friend.

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