Advertisement
Is Xi Jinping’s trip overseas the beginning of the end for China’s zero-Covid policy?
- Most of the country’s leadership has avoided travel abroad since the start of the pandemic two years ago
- But face-to-face diplomatic activity appears to be back on the agenda
Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
31
Chinese President Xi Jinping is one of the very few – if only – state leaders in the world to have avoided overseas travel in the past two years because of Covid-19.
So when Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced in mid-August that Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would attend the Group of 20 summit in Bali in November, observers were alert for signs that China would change its long-standing zero-Covid policy.
Those prospects appeared to strengthen on Monday when the government of Kazakhstan announced that Xi would travel to the central Asia country next week, bringing forward the date of Xi’s first overseas trip since the pandemic to weeks before the Communist Party’s national congress in mid-October.
Advertisement
No official announcement has been made but Xi is also expected to go to Uzbekistan for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit next week.
Li Zhanshu, the third-ranking politician in the communist hierarchy, is also travelling abroad this week, making him the first Politburo Standing Committee member to do so.
Advertisement
But while diplomatic activity is restarting, analysts say the prospects of any abrupt change in China’s zero-Covid policy – even after the party congress – are remote. Instead, they say, the restrictions are likely to be relaxed gradually.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x