For some time now, the Chinese president has not moved from his country: he has not yet met Biden. Unknown on the reasons
The presidents and prime ministers of the most important countries discuss the future of the world at the G20 in Rome and at the climate conference in Glasgow, but one of the main interlocutors, Chinese President Xi Jinping, remained at home. Xi hasn’t left China for 21 months and is one of the few world leaders who hasn’t met Joe Biden yet. Observers are beginning to wonder if this absence really depends only on the restrictions imposed by Covid, as Beijing is trying to make believe, or if there is something else behind it.
The dates of the meetings in Rome and Glasgow were in conflict with an important closed-door meeting of the Chinese Communist Party, which will be held from 8 to 11 November and which is considered decisive for the confirmation of Xi in power for another five years. . It is therefore better to stay at home to fight for your ambitions than to go and discuss the reduction of Chinese carbon emissions, Covid and the recovery of the economy. China’s reputation, blamed for much of the planet’s pollution, the spread of the pandemic and the continuing violation of human rights, has never been lower, and Xi doesn’t want to go around hearing sermons and scoldings because her Country does not follow the agenda that others would like to impose on it.
According to the “New York Times”, the country is closing in on a bunker and is less and less open to the idea that its fate must be decided in continuous compromises with the West. Xi does not go overseas because he no longer feels obligated to cooperate with the United States and its allies on terms other than his own, and feels strong enough to do so. Five years ago, at the World Economic Forum, he presented himself as the inspirer and guardian of a multinational order opposed to Donald Trump’s “America First”, but it is difficult to exercise this role if you never meet anyone.
Beijing’s relations with the rest of the world have seriously deteriorated in recent months: the Taiwan question remains open and threatening, the “Aukus” alliance between Great Britain, France and Australia is aimed at containing Chinese expansionism in the Pacific, trade agreements with Europe are blocked by second thoughts, the transport crisis and the pandemic. Xi does not want to sit at the top internationally just to be the one against whom everyone is pointing their finger, and has perhaps decided to adopt the principle of his predecessor, Deng Xiaping: “Hide our strength and wait for our time”. That’s a big change from his early years in power, when he had traveled even more than American presidents, spending an average of 34 days abroad compared to Obama’s 25 and Trump’s 23.
If Xi remains locked up in his office, this does not mean that Chinese diplomacy remains firm anyway. China has made significant openings to the Taliban after their return to power in Afghanistan and maintains intense contacts with Third World countries, that is, most of the existing ones. At the same time, Xi occasionally telephones European leaders: before the G20 he spoke with Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and Mario Draghi. But his thoughts seem to turn to the home front and to the concrete possibility of being confirmed in power at the next party congress, to be held in 2022.
Victor Shih, a political science professor at the University of California, confirmed to the Times that Xi’s drastic reduction in travel coincided with an increasingly nationalist tone at home that seems to preclude international cooperation. “He no longer feels he needs international support because he has great domestic support and internal control,” he said. The general effort to woo America and European countries is less today than it was during his first term ». When Xi is reconfirmed as president and Covid, hopefully, will be just a bad memory, China will return to the international top. But she will be less and less willing to be accused of every evil in the world and more and more ready to beat her fists on the table to defend her interests.
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