Back into 1951, the trade tie between China and Libya was established. During the first twenty years, it was quite limited. And in the 1970s it saw certain development. Until in the 1980s, the trade volume maintained at 40 to 70 million US$. Then in the 1990s, the trade volume between two sides was unstable, it even reached 176 million US$ in 1992, However in the years after, it was kept at a level of about 100 million US$.

The bilateral trade has gained a great momentum in recent years. In 2003, it reached 216 million US$, an increase of 91.3% compared to the last year. And in 2004 it reached 670 million US$, the growth rate was 211.4%, when it was 2005, the total trade volume exceeded 1.3 billion US$, hitting the record in the history of the bilateral trade.

Until 2006, several Chinese companies have investment, construction project contract or labor cooperation in Libya including China National Petroleum Corporation International Ltd, CNPC Services & Engineering (Libya) Ltd, Great Wall Drilling Company Ltd, BGP International (Libya) Inc, China Petroleum Pipeline International (Libya), ZTE Corporation Libya Branch, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.