Xi Jinping Breaks Year-Long Travel Freeze Before Trump Summit

Xi Jinping landed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Aug. 30 for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, launching his busiest run of foreign travel in years — one that wraps up just before he is due in Washington to meet Donald Trump.

It is only the second time this year Xi has left China. His sole other trip abroad in 2026 was a June state visit to North Korea, according to CNBC. More than 20 foreign leaders, including Trump, visited Beijing instead during the first half of the year.

At the Bishkek summit, Xi held talks with SCO leaders on deepening cooperation and "major international and regional issues," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, according to China's State Council.

From Kyrgyzstan, Xi travels to Egypt for his first visit to the country in a decade, a trip that coincides with the 70th anniversary of Sino-Egyptian diplomatic ties, Bloomberg reported. He is also expected to attend the BRICS summit in New Delhi from Sept. 12 to 13, though Beijing has not confirmed his attendance.

The trip comes as Beijing and Washington continue trading sanctions and trade measures ahead of the summit.

Gabriel Wildau, managing director at Teneo, told CNBC that Xi's curtailed travel in recent years makes his current schedule "a significant gauge of his priorities."

Trump said in July that Xi is "coming over on September 24th," adding that the two leaders would revisit talks on artificial intelligence. The Washington meeting would be their third face-to-face since Trump's second term began, following a Busan summit last October and Trump's own visit to Beijing in May.

Separate US-China talks on artificial intelligence are expected to take place before the September meeting, though no date has been set, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.