Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a meeting in February 2022 on the sidelines of the Beijing Olympics (February 4, 2022, photo: Archyde.com/Aflo)
(Kaori Fukushima: Journalist)
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia at the end of January 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has stubbornly refrained from going abroad, except for Hong Kong, has been living withdrawn for about two years8. After months, I finally went abroad.
Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. On September 14, he will first visit Kazakhstan to hold talks with President Tokayev, and then attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15 and 16. The summit, which will also be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is likely to be the first Sino-Russian summit to take place since Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
What China watchers at home and abroad are paying attention to is the meaning of Xi Jinping’s trip abroad just before the 20th Party Congress.
It was reported in some reports that Xi Jinping was planning to visit Saudi Arabia after the Beidaihe meeting in August, and the Saudi side was preparing “the most spectacular welcome event since President Trump’s visit to the United States in May 2017.” However, it did not materialize in the end. It was believed that this was because the power struggle within the party was so intense that it was difficult for Xi Jinping to leave China before the party congress.
If so, does the fact that Xi Jinping has embarked on a foreign trip this time prove that the power struggle has settled down, that Xi Jinping is confident of the current political situation, and that he has secured a third term as general secretary? . Or is it that Xi Jinping, as the Communist Party of China, has more important issues outside the country than the power struggle within the party? I would like to think about that.