China Power | Diplomacy | East Asia

Xi Jinping Is Coming to the US. Why Is He Skipping the UNGA?

Xi’s coming to the U.S. East Coast while the United Nations’ biggest event is going on. That makes his absence all the more striking.

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 70th session, Sep. 28, 2015. That was the first and only time Xi attended a session of the UNGA in person.

If you read The Diplomat, you probably follow Asia-Pacific affairs – and thus you probably already know that Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to arrive in Washington, D.C. today for a much-anticipated summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to the White House’s itinerary, Xi will land at Andrews Air Force Base on September 23, where he will be personally received by Trump himself. The next day, he’ll receive a formal welcome ceremony at the White House, followed by the actual summit and a state dinner. On September 25, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will host Xi and his wife for tea; both couples will then visit the National Archives, “where they will view a variety of important records and documents significant to the American and Chinese relationship throughout history.” Then Xi and his delegation will fly home.

What’s most remarkable about this itinerary is what it doesn’t include: a stop in New York, where the United Nations’ General Assembly is currently holding its 81st session. Heads of state and government from around the world are making the trip to New York just for the UNGA, including top leaders from Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Mongolia, South Korea, and Vietnam, just to name a few from The Diplomat’s coverage region.

Meanwhile, Xi is making a trip across the Pacific Ocean and the entire continental U.S. and not bothering to take an extra jaunt up the coast to attend the United Nations’ most important annual event.

Instead, Vice President Han Zheng will be in New York from September 24 to 26 to represent China at the UNGA. According to China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, “On the sidelines of the general debate, Vice President Han will attend the High-Level Dialogue on the Fifth Anniversary of the Global Development Initiative hosted by China, and meet with [the] U.N. secretary-general, president of the 81st UNGA session, and leaders of relevant countries.”

Apparently, these are meetings Xi couldn’t be bothered to attend himself, despite being just an hour’s plane ride away. 

Xi’s absence from the UNGA would seem to undermine China’s consistent rhetorical emphasis on the United Nations’ importance. China’s white paper on global governance, released in June 2026, repeatedly emphasized the U.N. as the “core” of the international  order. “The United Nations is the primary platform for practicing multilateralism and advancing global governance,” the white paper declared. “Its leading position must be upheld and remain rock solid; its role can only be reinforced, not weakened.”

In the same press conference where Guo announced Han’s trip, the spokesperson repeated a similar line: “The United Nations is the core platform for global governance, and the general debate of UNGA is a vital opportunity for countries to build political consensus and coordinate multilateral actions.” But if the United Nations, and the UNGA, are so important, why can’t Xi be bothered to attend?

Xi has gone to the UNGA just once since becoming China’s top leader in late 2012. He went in 2015, to commemorate the United Nations’ 70th anniversary, and addressed the UNGA in person for the first and only time.

Notably, this coincided with Xi’s last state visit to the United States, when he included attendance at the UNGA within a broader itinerary that saw him also hold a summit with then-U.S. President Barack Obama. That makes the decision not to do the same thing in 2026 all the more notable.

In 2021, Xi gave a video address to the UNGA, in which he announced China’s Global........

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