(Bloomberg) — China’s No. 3 official Li Zhanshu will visit Russia, becoming the nation’s most-senior leader to travel abroad since Covid’s early days as Beijing’s top brass prepare to rejoin global summits in person.
Li will travel to Russia on Wednesday for the Seventh Eastern Economic Forum, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday. He’ll be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit the country since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, as Beijing offers Moscow diplomatic support despite US calls for it to condemn the war.
China’s top legislator will also visit Mongolia, Nepal, and South Korea during the trip that extends to Sept. 17, according to the report, which didn’t break down his itinerary. Li will be in Seoul from Sept. 15-17, South Korea’s parliament said in a statement Sunday.
Li’s four-country tour comes weeks ahead of the ruling Communist Party’s twice-a-decade leadership congress, set to begin on Oct. 16, where President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a precedent-defying third term in office.
Xi, who hasn’t left China since January 2020 due to the nation’s strict pandemic border curbs, is expected to break that trend by attending the Group of Twenty leaders summit in Bali in November. Li’s trip is a sign other Chinese leaders are also preparing to resume global travel, which has largely been left to Foreign Minister Wang Yi for the past two years.
Li, 72, is expected to step down from his Standing Committee post at the party congress, after exceeding the body’s de facto retirement age of 68. He’ll remain in his role as chairman of the country’s national legislature until the end of his term in March.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has tested China’s already strained ties with the US, after Xi and Putin announced a “no limits” partnership on the eve of the invasion. Beijing has since avoided criticizing Moscow’s operations, while being mindful of not crossing Washington’s stated red lines of providing sanctions relief or military supplies to Putin.
China and India are currently joining Russia in week-long military exercises in Russia’s Far East, part of Putin’s pushback against US efforts to isolate him over his invasion of Ukraine.
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