Situated on the horn of Eastern Africa, the Somalia Republic covers an area of 640,000 square km and has a population of about 10.4 million belonging to two major ethnic groups, i.e., Sammale and Sab, with the former accounting for 80%. Islam is the national religion. Somali and Arabic are the official languages, and English and Italian are widely used. The national capital is Mogadishu. The current president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia is Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed.

China and Somalia established the diplomatic relations on Dec. 14, 1960. From then to 1990, bilateral cooperation developed smoothly. Somalia was one of the countries that submitted the motion to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) on restoring the legitimate seat of China in the UN. Although the Chinese Embassy in Somalia was closed in 1991 when Somalia was plunged into a civil war, the two countries still maintained diplomatic relations. China has supported the founding of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, and maintained friendly cooperation relations with it. Bilateral trade came to 19.64 million U.S. dollars in 2005.