On September 11th, 1991, the vice-foreign ministers of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Estonia signed Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Estonia，from then on China and Estonia officially established diplomatic relations.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the relations between the two countries have developed smoothly on the whole. In June 2002, President Jiang Zemin paid a state visit to Estonia. In March 2001, Li Peng, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, visited Estonia. In October 2006, Jia Qinglin, Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, visited Estonia. Besides that, a number of Estonian presidents, premiers, speakers of the Saeima and other high-level political leaders have also visited China on multiple occasions.

China and Estonia have established a joint committee on economic and trade cooperation. In these years business cooperation between Chinese and Estonian enterprises has achieved fruitful results. According to Chinese statistics, the bilateral trade volume in 2024 reached US$115 million. In November 2017, China and Estonia signed a memorandum of understanding on jointly promoting the construction of the Belt and Road. Estonia was once a founding member of Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. In recent years, frequent people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries have made a positive contribution to the bilateral relations. In 2010, the Confucius Institute was established at the University of Tallinn. The "Happy Chinese New Year" event has been held in Tallinn and other cities of Estonia for many consecutive years.