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By all accounts, Xi Jinping has been a somewhat reluctant foreign traveller since the COVID-19 pandemic. He has preferred instead to receive foreign leaders in Beijing. The contrast with American presidential diplomacy is striking. Between 2021 and 2025, US presidents made 51 visits to other countries, compared with only 25 by Xi Jinping.

That pattern has changed dramatically this month. Xi has embarked on his busiest spell of foreign travel in more than seven years: to Kyrgyzstan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, to Egypt on a state visit, to New Delhi for the BRICS summit and, later this month, he plans to be in Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump.

These may appear to be four unrelated diplomatic engagements. But taken together, they represent a demonstration of China’s diplomatic reach at a moment when the international system is under extraordinary strain. Xi is projecting China as a stable, predictable and economically consequential power in a period when many countries are coping with wars, sanctions, trade restrictions and the uncertainties generated by the Trump administration.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

The message is particularly directed at the Global South. The SCO summit in Bishkek put Xi alongside Russia, Iran and the Central Asian states. His visit to Egypt allowed him to engage an important West Asian and African power at a time when American policy in the region is generating considerable uncertainty. His presence in New Delhi brought him to the centre of the enlarged BRICS grouping, whose membership and political significance have grown substantially. And then comes Washington on September 24.

The sequencing matters. Xi is demonstrating the nature and reach of China’s relationships before sitting down with Trump. As one American analyst put it in the Washington Post, China wants the US to see that it has “diplomatic depth and strategic options.” That there is an alternative vision of a world order which is being slowly, but assiduously being built.

This is also a message that Beijing offers stability while Washington offers uncertainty. The proposition is not entirely altruistic. China wants to translate diplomatic influence into economic and technological advantage. Trade, investment, infrastructure and technology are central to the pitch.

Speaking in New Delhi at the BRICS summit, Xi focused on the need for accelerating “high quality development and greater BRICS cooperation.” He spoke of an AI-empowered new industrialisation and invited members to join the Chinese led World Artificial Intelligence........

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