Shunning global summits, Xi visits flood-stricken area in northeast China
BEIJING : Eschewing face-time with foreign leaders at global summits this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday visited the homes of villagers in a rural part of northeast China battered by floods. In the village of Longwangmiao in Heilongjiang province, Xi called on local residents to triumph over their difficulties and work towards returning life to a more normal footing, according to state media reports. He also enquired about their losses and supply of daily necessities.
In late July through early August, record rainfall laid waste to vast swathes of northern China, flooding cities and farmlands unused to powerful storms more common in the south, but Xi did not visit any of the disaster-hit areas until this week. Inspecting rice crops and damaged homes in Longwangmiao battered by remnants of the super typhoon Doksuri, Xi skipped an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia this week. He will also miss the chance on Saturday and Sunday to meet with U.S.
President Joe Biden at a G20 conclave in India. But Xi did attend a meeting in late August with leaders of the BRICS group of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - in South Africa. Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that Xi's speed in visiting disaster-stricken areas in China has usually been much slower than his immediate predecessors Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, a possible consequence of Xi's centralisation of power.
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