TOKYO — Fresh off a tour of Southeast Asia, Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to host counterparts from Kenya and Azerbaijan this week in Beijing, continuing his diplomatic outreach to developing countries in the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and rethink of foreign aid.
Kenyan President William Ruto and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were both due to arrive in China on Tuesday for separate visits that, observers say, reflect Beijing’s strategic shift to sustain growth. “Whenever China encounters tension, pushback and isolation from Western countries, it pivots harder — and with much greater focus and intensity — toward the developing world,” said Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. He cited precedents during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and the COVID-19 pandemic.
