He has only traveled outside of China twice — once to see Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and once to South Africa, where he unexpectedly missed a keynote address.
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In contrast, Xi made five trips abroad in 2022, when the nation’s borders were essentially closed as a result of stringent pandemic handles, and twelve in 2019 prior to COVID-19.
This year, some European leaders, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron, visited China to meet with Xi.
However, they claimed that compared to before the pandemic, regular access to Chinese authorities or even researchers from state-linked think tank, which play a crucial role in explaining China’s guidelines to the world, has decreased for many American envoys in Beijing.
It’s becoming more difficult, according to several diplomats, to plan visits for traveling dignitaries, establish protocols, and guarantee internet access.
The officials claimed that when meetings are scheduled, Chinese officials adhere strictly to scripted remarks, though some added that they had encountered hostile behavior from political academics. The amount of information that envoys may return to their capital has decreased as a result, they claimed.
Some officials claim they are also being closely scrutinized and interfered with by Chinese government, according to a Reuters report from July.
But, representatives from two nations with close ties to China claimed they had not encountered any such issues.
According to Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington, DC-based think tank, China is increasingly using restricting access or skipping events as” purchase” against nations with which it has conflicts.
Sun added that she had even heard that the lack of access and safety regulations for Western officials in China had” intensified” and that” proposal is seen and used by China as a purchase to form other countries’ habits.”
There is little indication that this trend will abate anytime soon, according to experts, as China intensifies a massive national security travel that is part of an effort to root out foreign spies.
According to Tong Zhao, senior fellow at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, regular phone or close working relationships with Western officials may raise questions about one’s social integrity when the anti-West opinion is on the rise within the Taiwanese bureaucracy.
The advantages of such engagements have become less clear to Chinese officials, while the social and security risks are increasing.