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Finnish–Chinese relations are the foreign relations betweenFinland andChina.
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Along withSweden andDenmark, Finland was one of the firstWestern countries to recognize the People's Republic of China and form diplomatic relations with the country in 1950.[1] The embassy inBeijing was opened in April 1952, and the first resident Finnish ambassador to China, Helge von Knorring, presented hisletter of credence toMao Zedong on 9 May 1952.[1]
Later that same year, an economic department headed byOlavi J. Mattila was opened at the embassy to foster the development of trade relations. As a consequence, Finland became the first capitalist country to sign a bilateral trade agreement with the People's Republic of China in 1953.[1]
These steps, as well as Finland's staunch support forPRC's membership in the UN, formed a solid basis to the nations' relations well into the 1980s.[1] Since the early 1990s, there has been at least one officialminister-level state visit from Finland to China each year.[1]
President of the Republic of Finland,Alexander Stubb, paid a state visit to China from 28 to 31 October 2024. President Stubb met President of China,Xi Jinping, in Beijing.[2]
In November 2024, Finnish authorities investigated a Chinese shipping vessel, theYi Peng 3, in theBaltic Sea after it was found in the vicinity of two severed undersea fiber-optic data cables and suspected of sabotage.[3]
In June 2020, Finland openly opposed theHong Kong national security law.[4]
Finland and China have had an agreement on economic, industrial, scientific and technological co-operation since 1973, and the agreement was last revised in 2005.[1] The two principal trade organizations between the countries are Finland–China Trade Association and theChina Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).[citation needed]
One of the fastest growing areas of trade between the two countries is inenvironmental protection andinformation technology.[5]
China and Russia are suspected of large-scale spying of the IT networks at theFinnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The spying focused on data traffic between Finland and theEuropean Union, and is believed to have continued for four years. The spying was uncovered in spring 2013, with theFinnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) investigating the breach.[6]
In March 2021, theFinnish Security and Intelligence Service said China'sMinistry of State Security via theAPT31 hacking group had targeted the country's parliament in a cyber attack.[7] In March 2024, Finnish police confirmed that APT31 breached theParliament of Finland in March 2021.[8]
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