ExclusiveAfter snatching power at home, Xi Jinping wants to woo foreigners at Asia’s Davos
Boao Forum for Asia will be Xi’s first major diplomatic event after NPC meeting
President Xi Jinping will speak at the Boao Forum for Asia on the tropical island of Hainan next month to deliver the message that a powerful China will be good for the region and the world, two sources said.
“Xi’s speech will be the highlight for Boao this year as he will show up as the most powerful Chinese leader for decades,” one of the sources, who declined to be named as the schedule has not been made public, told the South China Morning Post.
A spokesman for the forum declined to comment.
On the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference on Thursday that the annual forum in Hainan, which will start on April 8, will be one of four major diplomatic events this year.
The others were the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders’ summit in Qingdao in June, the forum on China-Africa Cooperation in September, and the Shanghai Import Expo in December, he said.
The Boao Forum for Asia, held annually since 2002, has always served as a platform for China to call for regional cooperation and “free trade”, without heavy involvement from Western powers.