China’s Xi Jinping set to skip World Economic Forum in Davos, scuppering hopes of meeting with Donald Trump

Chinese President Xi Jinping is not planning to attend the World Economic Forum in January, according to people familiar with the matter, taking one option for a face-to-face meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump off the table.

Beijing still plans to send its top trade negotiator, Vice-Premier Liu He, to Washington to sign the phase one deal in early January, an official said separately, asking not to be identified because the discussions were private.

US trade representative Robert Lighthizer has said he expects the 86-page agreement to be signed around that time.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed question about the trip.

Davos is scheduled to take place from January 21 to January 24, ending the same day that Lunar New Year celebrations begin.

Xi has typically toured the country visiting smaller towns and cities ahead of the holiday, a tradition the country’s leaders have kept since the early 1990s to shore up public support.

Trump plans to attend the event in Switzerland, four administration officials said earlier. The first and only time Xi attended Davos was in 2017, when he defended global trade and multilateralism just before Trump’s inauguration.

Earlier this year, Vice-President Wang Qishan led the Chinese delegation in Davos, with Xi also skipping the event in 2018.

The US and China have been fighting a protracted trade war since early 2018, announcing this month that they reached an agreement on the first phase of a deal that would include reducing some of the tariffs levied during the dispute.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday that the accord is going through a technical and legal review, and will be released and signed in early January.