Yemen’s planning minister and Chinese envoy discuss water and power grants
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s planning minister and China’s chargé d’affaires discussed development grants and humanitarian aid in a video call on Tuesday, the state news agency said.
Mohammed al-Faqmi, the minister of planning and international cooperation, spoke with Zhao Zheng, the chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy to Yemen, Saba reported.
The account of the meeting rests on that Saba report. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of it, and no Chinese account of the call has been published.
Al-Faqmi thanked China for its support, the agency said.
His ministry is working with other government bodies to update a list of urgent humanitarian needs, which will then be submitted formally to the Chinese side, he said.
The two discussed development grants running in the water and electricity sectors.
They also discussed a request from the Yemeni Customs Authority for inspection equipment.
Ways for Yemeni exporters to use China’s customs exemptions for Yemeni products were raised.
So was Yemen’s participation in the second China-Arab States Summit.
The two sides discussed reactivating the joint Yemeni-Chinese committee for economic and technical cooperation.
The envoy reaffirmed China’s support for Yemen’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, and for the Presidential Leadership Council led by Rashad al-Alimi, according to the agency.
China is ready to provide more humanitarian aid, particularly medical supplies and food, he said, in response to the escalation in Taiz and on the west coast.
The ministry and the Chinese embassy would stay in contact, both sides agreed.
They also agreed to hold an in-person meeting in Aden, the interim capital.
Al-Faqmi was appointed by presidential decree and serves as Yemen’s governor at the Islamic Development Bank.
China’s embassy to Yemen has operated from temporary premises in Riyadh since Chinese diplomats left Sanaa after the war began in 2015.
China’s chargé d’affaires set out Beijing’s position on Yemen in an interview published on Oct. 20.
China would apply zero tariffs to all Yemeni exports, he said.
About 6,500 Yemeni students were studying in China, he said, and more scholarships were on offer.
China ran about 100 development and humanitarian projects in Yemen before the war, he said.
A development agreement signed earlier this year provides a grant of 50 million yuan, he said.
The two countries are marking 70 years of diplomatic relations this year.
He said China does not maintain contact with the Houthis, and urged the group to abandon military action.
China opposes attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, he said, and he condemned attacks on airports and similar facilities in Saudi Arabia.
He rejected as baseless reports that Chinese companies had supplied the Houthis with missile components. China would examine any evidence the Yemeni government provided, he said.
China announced in 2024 that it would host the second China-Arab States Summit this year. The first was held in Riyadh in December 2022.
The United Nations humanitarian response plan for Yemen, issued in March, put the number of people needing assistance at more than 22 million.
It recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure and 5.2 million as internally displaced.
More than 2.2 million children under five were acutely malnourished, the plan said. Of those, 516,157 were severely malnourished.
The appeal sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
In an interview published in July 2024 the envoy said China was in contact with the Houthis and with other Yemeni parties, and urged Yemen’s factions to sign a peace deal. In the October interview he said China does not maintain contact with the group.
He said in 2024 that China was working with Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, and with the other permanent members of the Security Council.
The Chinese navy had escorted 7,200 ships in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast over 15 years, he said then.
He also said China opposed United States sanctions on Chinese companies accused of supplying military materials to the Houthis, calling them unilateral and taken without Security Council approval.
He attended the delivery of Chinese medical aid to Hadramout and Aden in 2024, which included more than 1,000 medical items and 10 ambulances.
Abdullah al-Alimi, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, received the chargé d’affaires in January, Yemen’s foreign ministry said at the time. They discussed stabilising the governorates under government control and strengthening state institutions.
Yemen and China signed an economic and technical cooperation agreement carrying a grant of 100 million yuan in December 2023, on the sidelines of a development forum in Kunming.
Zhao met Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, on Aug. 4, the foreign ministry said at the time. They marked the 70th anniversary of relations and discussed development aid, education and capacity building.
Yemen and China established diplomatic relations on Sept. 24, 1956. Yemen was the third Arab state to recognise the People’s Republic.
China extended zero-tariff treatment to least developed countries, Yemen among them, in December 2024.
Yemen was the largest recipient of Chinese aid in the Middle East between 2000 and 2014, at about 282 million dollars.
China delivered more than 11,700 tons of food to Yemen between 2017 and 2020.
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