Country keeps busy with full diplomatic agenda
Numerous overseas leaders welcomed to Beijing
China faced a packed diplomatic agenda in 2022 that ranged from hosting VIPs arriving in Beijing for the Winter Olympics in February to a number of visits by leaders in the second half of the year.
The wide-ranging, informative agenda and busy schedule for visits to the nation by foreign leaders was best illustrated by that made by European Council President Charles Michel this month.
"I have come to Beijing to engage in a candid, in-depth and face-to-face dialogue with China's leadership. Today's meeting with President Xi Jinping took some three hours.… It's our first in-person meeting since I took office, due to COVID," Michel said after his meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec 1.
Vice-Foreign Minister Deng Li said the duration of the leaders' discussions far exceeded the estimated time.
Xi's meetings with visiting leaders covered some of the top global agenda items this year, including the Ukraine crisis, collaboration on economic recovery, and the response to COVID-19.
Fruitful results achieved from visits to Beijing included 13 cooperative documents signed with Vietnam, agreement with Pakistan to upgrade a railway and a motorway project, and the decision by China and Tanzania to raise their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.
Leading scholars said that behind these frequent visits to China is the common expectation among nations to strive for prosperity and progress amid unprecedented complexity in the international situation and aggravated deficits in global peace, development, security and governance.
Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said, "By hosting leaders from abroad, China sends clear signals — it is resuming major offline diplomatic events after the pandemic emerged three years ago, and China's fundamental policy of opening up has not changed."
China has made clear that it earnestly seeks collaboration on development with other nations — be they those from the East or the West, and whether they are developing countries or developed nations — and it is ready to play a bigger role in world affairs, Wu said.
"All these agreements made through home-ground diplomacy show that the world closely tracks China's development, these countries pay great attention to their ties with China, and they are looking to give a fresh boost to two-way relations through visits to Beijing," he added.
Many observers said China's home-ground diplomacy accelerated alongside the convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing in October.
The long list of visiting foreign leaders included those from China's neighbors, such as Vietnam, Laos and Mongolia, as well as from distant countries such as Germany, Tanzania and Cuba.
Xu Yicong, a researcher at the China Foundation for International Studies and a former Chinese ambassador to Cuba, said, "Behind the rush of China visits is the recognition by other nations of China's role as a responsible major country."
He said the world order is "evolving in an extremely confusing and disturbing way", as the pandemic continues, armed conflict lingers between Russia and Ukraine, and there are no hopeful signs for a turnaround in the global economic downturn.
"With many leaders flying to Beijing to discuss solutions to global issues with Xi, China's credibility is on the rise, and behind all this is the nation's lasting efforts in fulfilling its commitments, policies and ideas with action," Xu said.
"Still, China needs to keep a cool head, continue making its own contribution, avoid arrogance, remain humble, and better serve the world with self-confidence, wisdom, vision and substantial actions."