Xi to attend G20, APEC to present vision; Biden meet in focus
▶ Events to show China’s devt brings the world benefits
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday announced that President Xi Jinping will attend the 17th G20 Summit in Indonesia and the 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Thailand next week, which experts view as a sign of bringing China’s ideas on eliminating barriers and coordinating cooperation among economies and bringing opportunities to the world through opportunities created by its development.
The president will also meet with many world leaders including US President Joe Biden, drawing widespread attention from around the world, reflecting China’s increasingly paramount role in regional and global affairs.
The trip will be crucial both for China and the world as it will mark the first trip by the Chinese president following the recent successful conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which has united the Chinese people and set out inspiring development aspirations for both China and the world. It is also the first in-person attendance at the G20 summit and the APEC summit since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in three years, and the world increasingly turns to China and the broader Asia-Pacific region for stability.
Chinese experts believe that in the face of rising geographical tensions, a worsening energy crisis, the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession, as well as the confrontational mentality and bloc politics of the US and its allies, emerging economies, in
cluding China, will play an increasingly critical role in the multilateral diplomatic arena, in terms of maintaining the development of globalization and free trade, enhancing regional peace and stability, and promoting the democratization of international relations.
China’s role
Zhao Lijian, spokesperson from the ministry, said on Friday at a regular press conference that the G20 Bali Summit is the first multilateral summit the top Chinese leader will attend after the successful conclusion of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, while Xi’s attendance at the 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting “is an important act of China’s head-of-state diplomacy toward the Asia-Pacific,” which “fully shows the high importance China attaches to the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation.”
As the premier forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 needs to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, coordinate macroeconomic policies, and work concertedly for strong, sustainable, inclusive and balanced growth of the world economy, Zhao said.
“APEC is an important platform for economic cooperation in the AsiaPacific region. President Xi will deliver an important speech at the meeting, expounding China’s major propositions on deepening Asia-Pacific cooperation and promoting regional and global economic growth,” Zhao added.
Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the G20 Summit, which aims to help the world’s major economies brainstorm ways to coordinate cooperation, is likely to focus on how to improve the existing multilateral financial and economic system to effectively deal with the economic problems and the tendency for depression.
There are also international realities, such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the climate crisis, which the G20 will likely address as well, Li said.
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at the Renmin University of China, said that faced with the impact of the pandemic on the global supply chain and calls for “decoupling” by some Western countries in the name of security, China will continue to oppose ideologically led small cliques and firmly support globalization, as it is an objective law of development that no one can stop.
China hopes to demonstrate at multilateral diplomatic occasions such as the G20 and APEC summits that its development and opening-up, especially after the 20th National Congress of the CPC, will bring more new opportunities to the world, Wang said.
However, experts said it cannot be ruled out that the US will use arenas like the G20 and APEC summits to promote its Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) and other ideology-led economic and trade alliances, and force others to take sides.
China-US ties in spotlight
The meeting between Xi and Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit has been put under the spotlight as China-US relations have reached a lowest point in decades following the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit to China’s Taiwan region.
The upcoming Xi-Biden meeting is also the first one since China slammed countermeasures against US’ provocations. It will also be the first in-person encounter between the two leaders since Biden ascended to the White House in 2021.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian urged the US to work together with China to properly manage differences, advance mutually beneficial cooperation, avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation, and bring China-US relations back to the right track of sound and steady development, which “serves the interests of both sides and meets the expectations of the world.”
Unlike China’s stable political environment after the 20th National Congress of the CPC, Biden faces the risk of becoming a “lame duck,” as Republicans are very likely to win at least one of the Congress chambers.
APEC and G20 members are concerned about the uncertainties in the current economic interactions in the Asia-Pacific region, especially the US policy on China, Li said.
America’s efforts to tout the IPEF during the G20 and APEC summits probably won’t go over well, Li said, adding that the Asia-Pacific region is one of the world’s most economically dynamic regions, and most countries here will resist having their prosperity disrupted by American interference.