In the wake of Algerian independence war, the colonial regime evacuated nearly all French medical personnel, leaving the war-torn Algeria in a dire public hygiene crisis, and forcing Algerian nationalist authority to solicit international medical aid. Considering Algeria as an anti-imperialist ally, the Chinese government immediately responded to the request and dispatched 24 medical experts to Algeria in the spring of 1963, which turned out to be an unprecedented success for China’s foreign aid policy in terms of its profoundly positive policy effects. Since then, China gradually devised an international medical aid modality which has been incessantly dispatching medical teams initially to Algeria, then to almost all African countries. Since the 1980s, China’s foreign medical assistance has been institutionalized as a comprehensive diplomatic project comprising a stabilized scale of medical personnel, various medical training programs, considerable amounts of medical material donation, and massive medical infrastructure constructions. In terms of the patients treated, manpower and material cost invested, China’s foreign medical aid is estimably the largest and the most consistent international medical aid offered by a single country in the modern history. Taking Algeria as an example, and drawing together theoretical debates on public diplomacy, gift economies, south-south cooperation, and political Neo-Confucianism, this article is to contextualize China’s medical presence in Africa, conceptualize China’s international medical aid modality, and illustrate its far-reaching politico-economic implications. Mainly based on historical data with limited interviews, this research reveals that Chinese doctors have long been intentionally or unintentionally working as informal diplomats who in effect improved China’s international image and facilitated its diplomatic agenda. Contrary to the general perception of China’s overall international development regime which seems to operate in a socially blind, top-down, and rigidly formal manner, this article contends that, in addition to upholding the morality of international humanism, the Chinese government has been clearly aware of the policy effects of this particular foreign aid modality and has deliberately constructed its medical presence in Africa as a down-to-earth, bottom-up, and heart-winning foreign investment. This article intends to provide a preliminary case study for more comprehensive investigations into the largely neglected Sino-Maghrebi relations within China’s ever-increasing engagements with Africa and the Middle East.