China's Top Diplomat Visits Singapore and South Korea

(The Straits Times) — China’s top diplomat is visiting Singapore and South Korea in what could be viewed as a bid to improve China’s relations with its Asian neighbors amid deteriorating relations with the United States.

Yang Jiechi, a member of China’s powerful Politburo and head of the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign affairs office, is in Singapore on a two-day visit ending Thursday at the invitation of the Singapore government, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

He will call on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean will also host him for lunch, and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan will host breakfast.

Yang will then travel to Busan Friday and hold talks with South Korea’s new National Security Adviser Suh Hoon Saturday.

The talks will center on Covid-19 response cooperation, bilateral relations and the situation in the Korean peninsula, a South Korean presidential office spokesman said.

The two sides will also discuss Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to South Korea, which had been shelved because of the pandemic. Xi was last there in 2014.

South Korea was the first country in May to establish a “green channel” with China to allow certain business people to travel between the two countries. Singapore followed suit.

Yang is widely regarded as China’s foreign policy czar. He was ambassador to the U.S. from 2001 to 2005 and foreign minister between 2007 and 2013.

He was last in Singapore in 2015, accompanying Xi on his first state visit to the republic to mark 25 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng said last month that he was looking forward to welcoming Vice Premier Han Zheng to Singapore for the annual Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting, which has usually been held in September or October.

A date has yet to be set, given the pandemic.

The two countries take turns hosting the meeting, the most important platform for discussing bilateral ties.

This article was originally published by The Straits Times.

Contact editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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