The pandemic is over, but Chinese President Xi Jinping still isn't really traveling. Instead, he's making foreign leaders come to him. Xi has left China for only two days and hosted dignitaries from 36 nations since January. That flurry of domestic diplomacy sounds substantial after his years-long Covid isolation, but it's actually a decline compared to pre-pandemic engagements when he hosted an average of 48 dignitaries by this point in the year from 2013 to 2019.
Key Reading: Xi's Spent Two Days Outside China in 2023 as Problems Mount China Official's Call to Save Xi's City Angers Flood Victims PBOC Chief Meets With Property Developers, Vows Funding Help South Africa Says BRICS Will Move Forward on Expansion at Summit Modi Agrees to Attend BRICS Leaders Summit in South Africa Xi's lingering preference to work from home comes as he faces a slew of domestic challenges that even his precedent-defying third term can't insulate him from. China's economy is fending off deflation, his protege foreign minister, Qin Gang, has been ousted, and his nuclear-missile force has been rocked by reports of corruption probes. Record rainfall hitting Beijing this week has posed another problem, as officials' calls to prioritize protecting Xi's flagship new city, Xiong'an, have caused outrage among flood victims. Still, Xi can't stay home forever. A BRICS summit in South Africa this month is expected to be his first overseas multilateral event of this year. Beijing has been pushing for the five-nation bloc to expand beyond Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, with an announcement expected in Johannesburg, though other member states are less keen on the idea. A bigger BRICS would give Xi an important tool to counter the US. In a larger format, BRICS would start to look more comparable to the Group of Seven major economies. It would also put Xi in a stronger position going into next month's Group of 20 summit in India that'll likely bring him into President Joe Biden's orbit for the first time since November. If there's one thing that would inspire Xi to leave home, it's a chance to notch up a win over Beijing's biggest rival. — Jenni Marsh |
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