Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, started his official visit to Kazakhstan on Monday, where he and his counterpart touched on broader cooperation in fields such as introducing electric vehicle manufacturers from China to the central Asian country. Wang is also expected to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Astana on Tuesday.
It was not unexpected that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping could not meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco. The Chinese president had time to meet the U.S. leader for four hours and the Japanese leader for 65 minutes but he did not give South Korea s leader more than three minutes. The Chinese leader also met leaders of Brunei, Peru, Fiji, and Mexico but South Korea was not on his priority list. It is indicative of the fact that South Korea and China have drifted away from each other. It could also mean that China does not consider South Korea consequential enough in its larger strategy for the region.