Chinese President
Xi Jinping will not be attending the critical G20 Summit that is set to begin
on October 29, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. That
Xi Jinping won’t be in attendance at this summit was reportedly conveyed to G20
envoys, called Sherpas, in Florence last month. Media reports suggest that Xi
Jinping does not want to travel at the moment citing China’s COVID-19 protocols
which include quarantine mandates for returnees.
Xi Jinping has not
left China since mid-January 2020. He has not set foot outside China for 600 days.
This is the longest time that the leader of G-20 nation has not travelled
abroad. He, however, has attended numerous virtual meetings including a
gathering of BRICS nations in September.
The G20 meeting in
Rome under the presidentship of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. This is a
crucial meeting as significant challenges like the worldwide semiconductor shortage,
climate change and vaccine distribution are likely to be discussed, on all of
which issues, China is a significant player.
Summits like G20
allow world leaders to conduct bilateral talks on the sidelines and such
bilateral conversations often prove to play a crucial role in resolving
differences. At such a time, China could have come to the table in a bid to
resolve rising differences with the United States.
Of late, trade
tensions between US and China have increased manifold. Further, two of the
biggest economies in the world do not see eye-to-eye on aspects of technology,
human rights and Beijing’s strategic assertiveness in Asia, including in
Taiwan.
Last month, US
President Jo Biden and Xi Jinping spoke on the phone. That conversation however
yielded little result. Further, the Chinese President also did not take up an
offer of a potential in-person meeting with the US National Security Advisor
Jake Sullivan.