One of the most striking features of international politics, the bilateral unequal alliance often leaves the Small Power at a disadvantage. Domination in the alliance by the Great Power reduces the Small Power to the status of a satellite, rather than an ally. The Small Power thereby suffers a loss of sovereignty. Such was not the case with the unequal alliance between the smallest and one of the largest communist states: Albania and China. For seventeen years Albania used this alliance as a strategy to pursue and secure its national objectives. This interaction, examined here from the Albanian viewpoint, was made all the more unique by a basic incongruity of interests, a great geographical distance, profound historical and cultural differences and significant disparities in economic and military capabilities.