The absence of China’s top leader from this visit to North Korea is not unexpected. Compared with the decade before the 20th Party Congress in 2022, Xi has made noticeably fewer overseas trips in recent years. Meanwhile, Premier Li has taken on a number of key diplomatic engagements, including attending the G20 Summit in India in 2023, the BRICS Summit in Brazil this July, and the general debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this September. This year’s China-EU Summit, originally scheduled to be held in Brussels, has also been relocated to Beijing.
