Indonesia 1st foreign stop of China's Xi after securing record 3rd term

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China’s President Xi Jinping will travel to Indonesia next week to attend the G-20 summit, his first foreign trip since being proclaimed secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) for the historic third term last month.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in a statement that Xi will attend the 17th G-20 Summit in Bali from Nov. 14 to 17.

Moreover, Hua stated that the Chinese president will later travel to Thailand to attend the 29th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Bangkok from Nov. 17 to 19.

Xi was proclaimed CPC chief for the third time last month, and this will be his first foreign trip after forming a new team in the party.

This will be Xi’s second trip outside Chinese borders since the pandemic outbreak in early 2020. He made his first trip to Kazakhstan in September, and then to the historic city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

Early this year, Xi traveled to semi-autonomous Hong Kong by train to inaugurate the new chief executive and his team.

On the sidelines of the G-20 Summit and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Hua said, Xi will hold bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, US President Joe Biden, Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, among others, upon request.

Washington announced on Thursday that Biden will meet Xi in Indonesia to discuss a range of regional and global issues, including responsible competition.

​“The leaders will discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC, responsibly manage competition, and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Biden will raise Taiwan and “human rights violations and more broadly, the concerns we and our allies and partners have about China's harmful economic practices,” she said, adding that they are also expected to discuss Russia's war in Ukraine.

The meeting will be the leaders' first in-person meeting since Biden took office.

“The president believes it is critical to build a floor for the relationship and ensure that there are rules of the road that bound our competition,” said the official.

On Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the US on Thursday to “stop blurring, hollowing out and distorting the one-China principle.”​​​​​​​