In case you learn The Diplomat, you most likely observe Asia-Pacific affairs – and thus you most likely already know that Chinese language President Xi Jinping is because of arrive in Washington, D.C. right this moment for a much-anticipated summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In line with the White Home’s itinerary, Xi will land at Andrews Air Drive Base on September 23, the place he will likely be personally obtained by Trump himself. The subsequent day, he’ll obtain a proper welcome ceremony on the White Home, adopted by the precise summit and a state dinner. On September 25, Trump and First Woman Melania Trump will host Xi and his spouse for tea; each {couples} will then go to the Nationwide Archives, “the place they may view a wide range of essential information and paperwork vital to the American and Chinese language relationship all through historical past.” Then Xi and his delegation will fly house.
What’s most outstanding about this itinerary is what it doesn’t embody: a cease in New York, the place the United Nations’ Normal Meeting is presently holding its 81st session. Heads of state and authorities from all over the world are making the journey to New York only for the UNGA, together with prime leaders from Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Mongolia, South Korea, and Vietnam, simply to call a couple of from The Diplomat’s protection area.
In the meantime, Xi is making a visit throughout the Pacific Ocean and the whole continental U.S. and never bothering to take an additional jaunt up the coast to attend the United Nations’ most essential annual occasion.
As a substitute, Vice President Han Zheng will likely be in New York from September 24 to 26 to symbolize China on the UNGA. In line with China’s International Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, “On the sidelines of the overall debate, Vice President Han will attend the Excessive-Stage Dialogue on the Fifth Anniversary of the International Growth Initiative hosted by China, and meet with [the] U.N. secretary-general, president of the 81st UNGA session, and leaders of related international locations.”
Apparently, these are conferences Xi couldn’t be bothered to attend himself, regardless of being simply an hour’s aircraft trip away.
Xi’s absence from the UNGA would appear to undermine China’s constant rhetorical emphasis on the United Nations’ significance. China’s white paper on world governance, launched in June 2026, repeatedly emphasised the U.N. because the “core” of the worldwide order. “The United Nations is the first platform for training multilateralism and advancing world governance,” the white paper declared. “Its main place should be upheld and stay rock stable; its position can solely be bolstered, not weakened.”
In the identical press convention the place Guo introduced Han’s journey, the spokesperson repeated the same line: “The United Nations is the core platform for world governance, and the overall debate of UNGA is an important alternative for international locations to construct political consensus and coordinate multilateral actions.” But when the United Nations, and the UNGA, are so essential, why can’t Xi be bothered to attend?
Xi has gone to the UNGA simply as soon as since changing into China’s prime chief in late 2012. He went in 2015, to commemorate the United Nations’ seventieth anniversary, and addressed the UNGA in particular person for the primary and solely time.
Notably, this coincided with Xi’s final state go to to the USA, when he included attendance on the UNGA inside a broader itinerary that noticed him additionally maintain a summit with then-U.S. President Barack Obama. That makes the choice to not do the identical factor in 2026 all of the extra notable.
In 2021, Xi gave a video deal with to the UNGA, through which he introduced China’s International Growth Initiative. He has not delivered a speech earlier than the UNGA since.
Maybe most notably, Xi selected to skip final yr’s UNGA – the eightieth session. China places a lot inventory in these round-number anniversaries, pegging journeys overseas and main upgrades in bilateral relations to particular dates. Keep in mind that Xi took the time to attend the United Nations’ seventieth anniversary in particular person. That wasn’t an aberration – China’s prime chief had attended each decennial anniversary of the U.N. since Jiang Zemin in 1995. That made Xi’s absence from the eightieth anniversary in 2025 all of the extra conspicuous.
As I wrote on the time:
As a substitute [of attending the UNGA], Xi stayed in China, the place he “prolonged festive greetings” for the farmers’ harvest celebration and visited Urumqi to mark the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Area.
These occasions had been duly splashed throughout the front-page headlines of Individuals’s Each day, the official newspaper of the Chinese language Communist Social gathering. Premier Li Qiang’s presence at UNGA obtained only a one-line point out on the entrance web page for September 24.
Xi has additionally stopped saying China’s main world initiatives on the United Nations. He unveiled the International Growth Initiative on the UNGA again in 2021, albeit in a digital speech. However in 2025, Xi selected to announce the brand new International Governance Initiative – much more immediately associated to the United Nations’ mission – on the Shanghai Cooperation Group (SCO) summit held in China a month earlier than the UNGA.
Equally, China based its personal World Synthetic Intelligence Cooperation Group (WAICO) – “an impartial intergovernmental worldwide group that… goals to advertise worldwide cooperation and world governance on synthetic intelligence” – relatively than working inside the United Nations to legitimize its efforts towards the identical ends. China introduced WAICO at its personal AI convention, relatively than on the U.N. International Dialogue on AI Governance held a month earlier.
In the meantime, as Trump reduces U.S. funding for the United Nations, China hasn’t stepped as much as fill the hole. Its personal U.N.-assessed contributions have been chronically late and stay a mere fraction of what the USA was contributing previous to Trump taking workplace.
Irrespective of the lip service China pays to the United Nations’ “core position” in world governance, Beijing clearly prefers to offer consideration, cash, and status to settings the place it exerts extra management. That features China-led teams just like the SCO, but additionally purely bilateral conferences just like the summit with Trump.
Nikkei Asia theorized that Xi’s choice to skip the UNGA was an try and place China as a real equal to the USA – a message that apparently would have been diluted by Xi rubbing elbows with leaders from smaller states in New York. That in itself is telling. For all China’s rhetoric a couple of multipolar world the place all states have equal illustration – and equal say – in world governance, when push involves shove Beijing defaults to a unique perspective.
As China’s prime diplomat put it, pretty undiplomatically, in a heated ASEAN assembly again in 2010: “China is an enormous nation and different international locations are small international locations, and that’s only a truth.” One of many perks of being a “massive nation,” as Trump has repeatedly proven, is the privilege of ignoring the United Nations to pursue nationwide pursuits in different settings.