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If you go by flight from Washington DC to New York, it hardly takes one and a half hour.
When Chinese President Xi Jinping reached Washington on September 23, the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly was going on in New York. But Xi Jinping did not go here.
On behalf of China, Vice President Han Cheng will represent China at the UN General Assembly in New York from 24 to 26 September.
According to China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, "Vice President Han will attend the high-level dialogue to mark the fifth anniversary of the Global Development Initiative hosted by China and will meet with the UN Secretary-General, the President of the 81st UNGA session, as well as leaders of relevant countries."
It is being said that Xi's absence in the UN General Assembly seems to weaken China's continuously repeated point in which it has been emphasizing the importance of the United Nations.
In China's white paper on global governance released in June 2026, the United Nations has also been described as the center of the international system.
Xi has attended the UN General Assembly in person only once since becoming China's top leader in late 2012. He visited the United Nations in 2015 to mark its 70th anniversary and addressed the UN General Assembly in person, marking the first and only time ever.
It is noteworthy that this visit coincided with Xi's previous state visit to America. During that time, along with participating in UNGA, he also held a summit meeting with the then US President Barack Obama. In such a situation, their decision not to undertake a similar journey in 2026 becomes even more important.
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In 2021, Xi addressed the UNGA through a video message. During this time he had announced China's Global Development Initiative. Since then he has not personally addressed the UNGA.
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Online magazine The Diplomat wrote in a report, "Xi took out time to personally attend the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. This was no exception. China's top leaders have attended every tenth anniversary of the United Nations since the time of Jiang Zemin in 1995. In such a situation, Xi's absence on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations in 2025 was even more notable.
Japanese media outlet Nikkei Asia has written in its report that Xi Jinping was initially going to attend but later the plan changed.
Nikkei Asia wrote in its report, "China had also taken steps to prepare for the possible visit, which would be Xi's first personal speech at the United Nations in nearly 11 years." According to a source familiar with the talks involving the Chinese government, in late July Beijing and Washington tried to arrange a meeting in New York between Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant. This meeting would also have served as initial preparation for Xi's possible visit.
''But the plan to stay in New York in mid-August was canceled. This change was made partly to limit travel to three days. When Trump went to China, he reached there on the evening of May 13 and left on May 15. According to a Chinese government source, Beijing prioritized sending a message to the rest of the world that China and America are on equal footing.
Nikkei Asia wrote, "Not attending the UN General Assembly also reduces the risk." During the General Assembly, any other world leader may unexpectedly criticize China. Anti-China protests outside the UN headquarters during Xi's visit to New York in 2015 also attracted widespread attention.
Scott Kennedy, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Nikkei Asia, "Xi appears to have decided to spend the same amount of time in the US during this visit as Trump did in China in May. There is speculation that the decision was partly related to the difficulty of crafting a more comprehensive agenda and more concrete outcomes for his meetings with Trump."
The decreasing importance of the United Nations
British news website The Independent has written in its report that Xi Jinping is in a very strong position and its effect was clearly visible in the American tour as well.
The Independent wrote, "Analysts say that the US President is under pressure due to the American public being troubled by the costly war with Iran and the impact on his ratings before the mid-term elections, so Xi Jinping will not be in a hurry to make concessions to America."
"Trump has repeatedly underestimated the scale and significance of China's support for Iran. Neither he nor Treasury Secretary Scott Besant have indicated that the US is preparing or intends to target large Chinese financial institutions," Ali Wynne, senior research and advocacy adviser for US-China affairs at Crisis Group International, told The Independent.
America's leading newspaper New York Times has also linked this to the weakening position of the United Nations.
The NYT reports, "The United Nations is becoming weak, disorganized and largely ineffective as the world's major powers continue to sideline or ignore it. It was significant that Xi Jinping did not find it necessary to stop in New York on his way to meet Donald Trump. When Xi visited the Obama administration's White House in September 2015, he also attended the UN General Assembly that same year. and gave a speech."
Regarding the symbolic importance of Xi's absence, Geoffrey Prescott, who was the US ambassador to the UN offices in Rome during former US President Joe Biden, told The New York Times, "There could hardly be a more damaging symbolic message to the UN than this. The train between Washington and New York may be slower than the train from China. But Xi is not very far from here and yet he could not find time to go there."
He said, "I think this shows you how important the platform of the United Nations is at this time."
This global organization, established in 1945, has become almost paralyzed in recent years due to differences in the UN Security Council. The Security Council has the power to pass legally binding resolutions and approve sanctions or military action.
Disputes involving the US, China and Russia, all of which hold veto power in the Security Council, have repeatedly prevented concrete action on issues such as Iran, Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and South Sudan.
