Socialist Algeria had friendly relations with Maoist China; it is paradoxically during the 1990s and the 2000s, while Algeria abandoned the official reference to socialism, that the two countries began experiencing an unprecedented expansion of their economic, commercial and human relations in such a way one could feed fantasies about the Chinese presence and expectations in Algeria. This contribution will examine the sudden acceleration of the Sino-Algerian economic relations to show how Algeria’s government has been making the best of the Chinese presence to lead its development drive and to pursue new industrial policies.