Diplomatic relationship was established on June 5, 1972 between the Hellenic Republic and the People’s Republic of China, and the Agreement on S&T Cooperation was signed in Beijing on November 15, 1979 between the Government of the Hellenic Republic and the Government of the People’s Republic of China. With the adopted open policies and the rapid development of economy in China, the  Sino-Hellenic cooperation and exchange in science and technology has developed smoothly and rapidly. In 1984, the two sides co-published Conference Summary on Sino-Hellenic Government Cooperation of Science and Technology. According to the summary, the 1984 joint committee meeting was designated as the 1st Joint Committee meeting. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th joint committee meetings were held in 1985, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2003 respectively in both Beijing and Athens. Over twenty projects based on the grades evaluated by experts in the fields were decided in each of these meetings. Cooperative projects were carried out according to the protocols. These cooperative activities played an active role in promoting mutual understanding between governments, industries and institutions of two sides and contributed in furthering cooperation in science and technology.

During the last few years, Sino-Hellenic diplomatic relationship has a great development. The then Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the Prime Minister Costas Simitis exchanged the national visits in 2000 and 2002 respectively. In 1996, Song Jian , the President of the Committee of Science and Technology of China, paid an official visit to Greece, and the Minister of Development of the Hellenic Republic visited China in 1997. Mme. ZHU Lilan, the then Minister of Science and Technology and Mr. Nikos Chistodoulakis, the then Minister of Development exchanged visits in 2000. During the visits, both sides agreed on strengthening bilateral science and technology cooperation and widening cooperative research areas, such as renewable energy and food science and safety, biotechnology. Through the efforts of both sides, the China-Greece symposiums on renewable energy and food nutrition and safety were held in July 2001 and in 2002. Chinese Vice-premier LI Lanqing visited Greece in 2002 at the invitatin of the Minister of Development and furthered cooperation in the fields of science and technology.

Sino-Hellenic governmental science and technology cooperation mainly classified in many areas, i.e., cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Forestry Administration on one hand and the Hellenic Ministry of Agriculture on the another in the fields of forest and olive trees plantation. The health science cooperation between the two ministries of health is also active with high level visits and an agreement signed in 2001. Other fields of cooperation are environment, Olympic weather services, etc.