Pandemic, politics drive Xi's absence from global talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been absent from the Group of 20 summit in Rome and global climate talks in Scotland

BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has been absent from the Group of 20 summit in Rome and this week's global climate talks in Scotland, drawing criticism from U.S. President Joe Biden and questions about China’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and has pledged to begin reducing that output by 2030 and obtaining carbon neutrality by 2060. The U.S. and others have urged Beijing to make bigger commitments, but Xi's administration has strongly implied those will only come in exchange for political concessions.

China has enforced tight travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic and Xi hasn’t left the country since making a January 2020 trip to neighboring Myanmar.

That was just weeks before the outbreak, believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, spread worldwide. China has come under heavy pressure to reveal more information about the origin of the pandemic and has been accused of mismanaging the outbreak and then seeking to cover up its mistakes.