Xi’s Trip to Europe Mostly Centers on Strategic Partners

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will spend most of his five-day tour in Europe this week in two small countries in the continent’s eastern half, a region that Beijing has used as a foothold for its expanding economic ambitions in Europe. Following his stop in Paris on Monday to kick off his first European trip in five years, Xi will travel to Hungary and Serbia, two nations with autocratic leaders considered friendly to China and close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the AP reports. As other European leaders have pursued protectionist policies to limit Beijing and Moscow’s reach, nationalist conservative leaders…