Several top Chinese leaders are staging serial European visits - something that is rarely seen - in a move that suggests Beijing is attaching increasing significance to the forging of ties with countries in the region.
The visits by three members of the Politburo Standing Committee and the country's highest-ranked female politician will span the continent and come at time when the country is still feeling the aftershocks of a political crisis following the ousting of Politburo colleague and Chongqing party boss Bo Xilai.
Premier Wen Jiabao left Beijing yesterday for a week-long visit to Iceland, Germany, Sweden and Poland. Vice-Premier Li Keqiang will pay an official visit to Russia late this month. Beijing's propaganda tsar Li Changchun has just left Britain and State Councillor Liu Yandong is currently visiting Europe.
'It suggests that Beijing is increasingly attaching strategic and economic importance to the continent in its effort to build a multipolar world,' said Professor Jin Canrong, deputy dean of Renmin University's school of international relations.
While acknowledging that it is rare for so many top leaders to be in one region in such a short period of time, Jin said there were several reasons for the coincidence.
First, this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's normalisation of diplomatic ties with many European nations.