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Explainer | What’s at stake as China’s Xi Jinping makes first trip overseas since the pandemic began?
- Trip comes ahead of key party congress where Xi is expected to secure third term
- Xi will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and attend SCO summit
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Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Central Asia on Wednesday, setting out on his first overseas trip since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
He is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan – their first encounter since the war in Ukraine started in February – on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. The SCO is a regional political, economic and security organisation headed by China and composed of eight states, including former Soviet Union countries and India and Pakistan.
Xi’s trip will be watched very closely, as it comes just before he is expected to secure a third term in mid-October during the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Why is Xi Jinping’s trip important?
This is his first foreign trip since the pandemic started in 2020. In those 2½ years, Xi has mostly held meetings by video link with foreign leaders, amid waves of Covid-19 and sporadic lockdowns throughout the country to maintain its zero-Covid policy.
In-person diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges across borders have been kept to a minimum.
China’s economy has also seen a significant slowdown following months of lockdowns in the country’s financial hub of Shanghai as well as other cities and regions.
Last week, Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People’s Congress, became the first of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee to set foot outside the country since the start of the pandemic. Li’s 11-day trip has included stops in Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and South Korea.
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