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View all search resultsBeijing beckons as allies recalibrate ties with the US
World leaders are making their trips to China as a kind of response to US President Donald Trump's unfriendly attitudes.
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Uruguay's President Yamandu Orsi (left) stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Feb. 3, 2026. (AFP/Pool/Jessica Lee)
T
he Chaoyang district, where the main embassies in Beijing are located, has the same population as Uruguay, 3.5 million inhabitants. Even so, the most attentive diplomats based there will note that Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi is the third Western leader to visit China in just over two weeks.
The series began on Jan. 14 with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, ending a long period of poor relations between the two countries, especially since the 2018 detention of Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the founder of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.
Meng, Huawei's chief financial officer, was interrogated upon arrival at Vancouver airport and placed under house arrest due to an extradition request from the United States government on charges of fraud, and only returned to China in 2021.
Chinese President Xi Jinping described Carney's visit as a "turning point" in bilateral relations. The results were modest: a reduction in tariffs applied to Canadian exports of canola oil and permission for 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to enter Canada.
A few days later, it was the turn of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to visit China. In this case too, relations had cooled. The last trip to Beijing by a British leader had been eight years earlier.
And, likewise, the results were meager. British tourists will no longer need visas for visits to China of up to 30 days. And Chinese import tariffs on Scotch whisky have been halved.
In both cases, small Chinese concessions to two countries with which relations were cold, to say the least. But they saw the route to Beijing as a safer path than the unpredictable relations with Washington.
