Unmasked and confident: Si returns to personal diplomacy

President Xi Jinping, whose absence from the diplomatic main stage has been conspicuous during China's Covid-XNUMX lockdown, returned mostly to smiles and handshakes during a series of meetings Beijing hopes will repair strained relations.

But in one exchange that went viral, cameras caught Xi berating Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Group of 20 summit over leaks apparently from their bilateral meeting the day before. It was a rare, candid insight into the behavior of a Chinese leader and a reminder of Beijing's tense relationship with the West.

Absence from direct interaction during the pandemic has cost China dearly, diplomats and other experts told Reuters, while relations with the United States and some other Asian neighbors have been seriously strained over a range of issues.

Since leaders have recently had extremely limited access to top Chinese officials, the importance of Xi's presence this week on the Indonesian island of Bali, where the G20 summit was held, followed by the APEC summit in Bangkok, is all the more important.

The renewal of dialogue, including Xi's first meeting with Joe Biden as US president and the first direct talks with the Australian leader since 2016, are in themselves positive, although they did not result in concrete results, according to Reuters.

In addition to Biden, Trudeau and Australian leader Anthony Albanese, Xi also had meetings in Bali with the leaders of North Korea, Italy, Argentina, the Netherlands and France. A meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunaka was canceled due to a tight schedule, London said, while Xi will meet Japanese Prime Minister Fumia Kishida and New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern in Bangkok.

Before Covid-XNUMX, Xi Jinping was a passionate advocate of personal diplomacy as China expanded its presence on the world stage through initiatives such as the Belt and Road, meeting with a receptiveness especially in developing countries, whose leaders were honored for one-on-one meetings and photo ops with Xi.

Lif Eric Isley, a professor of international studies at Eva University in Seoul, described Xi's busy schedule as a "charm offensive" after China kept its borders closed for nearly three years and as Xi consolidated power last month by winning a third term at the ruling Communist Party congress.

"The meetings are probably not enough to make progress in areas such as the economy and security, but they can prevent further deterioration of diplomatic relations," Easley told Reuters.

The main event of Xi's week was a three-hour meeting with Biden that brought signs of a thaw in the frayed bilateral relationship and plans for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to visit Beijing early next year.

Daniel Russell, the chief diplomat for East Asia in the Barack Obama administration, said that signs that China might be ready to take preliminary steps toward cooperation on some global issues "should be treated as an experiment, not as a done deal."

And while Biden returned to Washington after the G20, and will be represented at the APEC meeting by Vice President Kamala Harris, Xi is personally participating in both events held in the region that China considers its backyard.

Ms. Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, said other leaders were trying to assess the state of their relations with China this week, "especially now that the system is less accessible and much less transparent than it was before."

Xi moved around Bali in his "hongki" (red flag) limousine - Mao Zedong used an older model - which is the Chinese version of the US presidential "beast" limousine.

Unlike Biden, Xi attended the G20 joint dinner after skipping a formal dinner in September during a regional security group meeting in Central Asia that was his first trip abroad since the outbreak of the pandemic.

For China, such an appearance is an opportunity to take the initiative in the fierce competition for influence with the United States, whose assertiveness in the Pacific through support for Taiwan and the AUKUS partnership with Australia and Britain is increasingly worrying Beijing.

China is also upset by US efforts to shut them out of their advanced semiconductor technology, which is why Xi has spoken out against the "unbundling" and politicization of economic and trade issues with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, home to chip equipment giant ASML.

"It is in China's interest to win over as many partners as possible to the United States," Masafumi Lida, from the National Institute for Defense Studies in Japan, told Reuters. "Such a way of thinking is reflected in the way Xi held meetings with the Australian leader Albanese and the president of South Korea, in the hope of achieving better relations with them," he said.

The return to personal diplomacy also provides Xi with a platform to push Chinese initiatives that further cement her position as a rising world leader. He spoke about the Belt and Road Initiative during a meeting with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez.

On the domestic front, where covid epidemics break out regularly and where Xi's government is increasingly authoritarian, the week of meetings carries a message of global reputation and provides a sense of normalcy, although coverage is limited mainly to state media.

Before Covid-XNUMX, Xi was an ardent advocate of personal diplomacy as China expanded its presence on the world stage through initiatives like the Belt and Road, drawing a warm welcome from developing countries in particular, whose leaders were honored for one-on-one meetings and photo ops with Xi.

Li Mingjiang, a professor of international relations at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that the feeling of pressure in Beijing due to Washington's global assertiveness could be an "additional incentive" to activate diplomacy.

"I think in the coming years you will see that China is really making a serious effort to apply its great power diplomacy," he said.