The last fortnight has seen a flurry of meetings with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the G20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).
In some ways, this saw China re-engaging with a post-Covid-19 world. Many in the media saw this as China coming to the world, but events suggest that the world was coming to China, particularly President Xi Jinping.
Following more than two years of Covid-19 induced isolation, a common narrative suggested the world could not rely on China’s supply chains; the world found that China was indispensable. The fierce competition to meet with President Xi tells us that China is back — even though it never really went away. China remains a gift to the global economy.
