Lying in the northern part of the African continent, the Democratic People's Republic of Algeria covers an area of 2,380,000 square km and has a population of about 32,360,000, mostly Arabs. The country's religion is Islam. Arabic is the official language, with French in extensive use. Algiers is the national capital. The current president is Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Since Algeria established diplomatic ties with China on December 20, 1958, the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries have been developing in an all-round way in the political, economic, health and military areas. Algeria made a significant contribution to restoring China's legitimate seat in the United Nations. In 2000, President Bouteflika visited China and attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2000 Ministerial Conference of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation. Li Peng, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, and Premier Zhu Rongji visited Algeria in 2001 and in 2002, separately. During Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Algeria in February 2004, the two countries announced the establishment of a strategic cooperative relationship. Bilateral trade topped 1.77 billion U.S. dollars in 2005.