Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the G-20 summit in New Delhi this weekend has been widely cast as a snub of India, in particular Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, by passing up an opportunity to deal with President Joe Biden directly for the first time since their meeting at the G-20 summit in Bali last November, Xi may instead be sending a message to the US.

A clue to Xi’s intentions may be found in a remarkable statement about Sino-US relations issued by the Chinese Ministry of State Security around the time China announced that Premier Li Qiang, not Xi, would travel to Delhi. The MSS has seldom, if ever, made public pronouncements on foreign policy, which is not its purview. The agency would be extremely unlikely to wade into such a sensitive issue without at least some implicit signal or support from the top.

Up Next

China Isn’t Buying the Message US Officials Are Selling