Don’t weaponise food, energy security, China’s Xi Jinping’s tells G20

Xi says source of world’s current crisis is a ‘supply chain problem’

Chinese president calls for the reversal of ‘tech-related sanctions’, asks wealthy nations to contain fallout from interest rate hikes

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At the G20 summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said international cooperation has been ‘disturbed’ by a supply chain problem, and asked for the reversal of ‘tech-related sanctions’. Photo: AP

Published: 6:00pm, 15 Nov 2022Updated: 6:34pm, 15 Nov 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping blamed the world’s food and energy crisis on politicisation and “disturbance on cooperation” as he faced calls from other Group of 20 nations to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In his opening remarks to the G20 summit in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali on Tuesday, Xi said food and energy security was the “most pressing challenge” the world faced today, and called for the reversal of “tech-related sanctions” to solve problems.

“The source of the current crisis is not from production and demand, but a supply chain problem. International cooperation has been disturbed,” Xi said as the two-day summit began.

“Food and energy problems should not be politicised, utilised and weaponised. Unilateral sanctions and limitations related to tech cooperation should be dropped,” Xi said, according to the official transcript of his speech given in a closed-door session.

With the United States using rate hikes to fight inflation, he also asked the G20 wealthy nations to contain the fallout from interest rate rises.

“We must contain global inflation and resolve systematic risks in the economy and finance,” Xi said.