China Briefing | Xi’s no-show at global summits does not mean China is retreating from the world stage

US President Joe Biden said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s failure to attend the G20 and COP26 summits was a ‘big mistake’, but there were practical and political reasons

Washington’s climate credibility is in doubt while Xi’s intention to seek a longer term means he could oversee China’s climate promises being translated into actions

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Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the 16th G20 Leaders’ Summit via video link in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30am, 6 Nov 2021

Over the past week, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s failure to show up in person for two major back-to-back global events – the G20 leaders’ meeting in Rome and the United Nations-led climate conference in Glasgow, known as COP26 – has triggered intense speculation about China’s priorities and earned a jibe from US President Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, Biden described Xi’s decision not to attend the climate summit as “a big mistake” and said China ceded its influence as a world leader on the global stage.

Some international media depicted Xi’s no-show as “snubbing” the conference, which was aimed at clinching a new global deal to fight climate change, one of the world’s most pressing problems.

More than 100 world leaders converged in Glasgow along with tens of thousands of officials, researchers, activists and protesters under the gaze of the global media. Xi was not alone in skipping the summit. Others who did not attend included Vladimir Putin of Russia, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

But given the fact that China is the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the US, the media spotlight on Xi’s absence has raised concerns about China’s commitment to fighting climate change.

Some media commentators have even interpreted Xi’s no-show at the two events as a signal of the Chinese leadership’s inward turning mentality at a time when its overall relations with the US and its Western allies are in a spiral.

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