Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Activists interacted on social media to announce the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Saudi Arabia, today, Wednesday to Friday, December 9.
Activists raised speculation about the messages and meaning of this visit, and compared what the Chinese president’s reception would be like with the reception that US President Joe Biden had during his visit to the Kingdom last July.
John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the National Security Council at the White House, has emphasized that the United States of America does not ask other countries to choose between it and China, commenting on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Kirby responded, in a press conference by phone, to a question about whether the Chinese president’s visit to Saudi Arabia is a direct challenge to US interests in the region, especially after President Joe Biden’s statements that his country will not withdraw from the region and leave a vacuum filled by China or Russia, saying that “foreign leaders They, you know, travel the world and have bilateral relations.”
He added, “We have never asked a country to choose between the United States and China. So, if our friends and partners in the Middle East want to meet President Xi Jinping and talk to him about a range of issues, that is certainly their right and we respect that.”