On July 21, 1990, China and Saudi Arabia established diplomatic relations. In January 2016, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Saudi Arabia, during which China and Saudi Arabia established a comprehensive strategic partnership. In December 2022, President Xi Jinping attended the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-GCC Summit held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, and paid a state visit to Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the above visits, visits from the Chinese side to Saudi Arabia in recent years mainly include: Premier Li Qiang of the State Council (September 2024), Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (December 2013, March 2021), among others. Visits from the Saudi Arabian side to China mainly include: King Salman bin Abdulaziz (March 2017), Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (August 2016, February 2019), and Minister of Foreign Affairs Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud (January 2022, April 2023, November 2023, May 2024), among others.

Bilateral practical cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results. Saudi Arabia is China's largest trading partner in the Middle East, and China is also Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. In 2024, the trade volume between China and Saudi Arabia reached USD 107.53 billion, of which China's exports amounted to USD 50.05 billion and imports totaled USD 57.48 billion. China mainly exports mechanical and electrical products, metals and their products, automobiles, ships, textiles, apparel, and other products, and mainly imports crude oil, and petrochemical products, among others. Saudi Arabia has long been China's largest crude oil supplier. In 2024, China imported 78.639 million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia.

The two countries have close people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Saudi Arabia is actively cooperating with China in Chinese language education. At present, two universities in Saudi Arabia have Confucius Institutes, four universities offer Chinese language programs, and eight primary and middle schools provide Chinese language elective courses as the first batch of pilot schools. In March 2017, King Abdulaziz Public Library Branch in Peking University was inaugurated. King Salman bin Abdulaziz attended the inauguration ceremony and received an honorary doctorate from Peking University. In January 2024, the Saudi Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and the Palace Museum cooperated to hold the exhibition of "AlUla: Wonder of Arabia" in Beijing. In October 2024, Saudi Arabia held the "Saudi Tourism Festival" at the Temple of Heaven.

In November 2022, Saudi Arabia became an outbound destination for package tours of Chinese citizens. In September 2023, China and Saudi Arabia signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Implementation Plan for Chinese Tourism Groups to Travel to Saudi Arabia.