China faces skeptics with UNGA pitch for global leader status

Xi Jinping wants to rewire the international system in Beijing’s image — but he’s left it to a deputy to make the case.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a high level Security Council meeting on the situation in Ukraine, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, at United Nations headquarters. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

By PHELIM KINE

09/23/2022 10:32 AM EDT

China’s President Xi Jinping Zoomed into the U.N. General Assembly last year crowing about how his country had beaten Covid, opposed foreign military interventions and led the way in advancing democracy and rule of law.

Since then, China has taken Russia’s side in the Ukraine war. It’s menaced the democratic island of Taiwan and stamped out the vestiges of free rule in Hong Kong. And its vaunted economy has sputtered due to its draconian zero-Covid strategy.

China faces skeptics with UNGA pitch for global leader status