Xi says China, Egypt hold ‘similar visions and strategies’

BEIJING — China and Egypt “share similar visions and strategies in defending their own interests,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Saturday in a meeting with Egypt’s authoritarian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

The Egyptian leader was one of a half-dozen heads of state who met with Xi after attending the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, seeking closer ties with China while shunning Western criticism of their heavy-handed rule.

Xi “hailed enhanced political trust” between the countries, citing cooperation in fighting the pandemic. Their comprehensive strategic partnership is a model of “China-Arab, China-Africa and China-developing world solidarity,” Xi said, according to CGTN, the international arm of state broadcaster CCTV.

“China and Egypt share similar visions and strategies in defending their own interests, pursuing common development, enhancing their people’s well-being and promoting fairness and justice in the world, as the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century,” Xi said.

The sides will “continue to support each other on issues related to core interests and major concerns,” he said.

Since taking power, el-Sissi has overseen a widespread crackdown on dissent and opposition, jailing tens of thousands and drawing international criticism.

In 2017, the government arrested dozens of Uyghur students studying at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University and deported them to China amid Beijing’s ruthless crackdown targeting Muslim minorities in the far western Xinjiang region.

Egypt was the recipient of several free shipments of Chinese-made Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines and China says it helped set up Africa’s first vaccine production in the country.

El-Sissi is one of more than 30 world leaders and heads of major international organizations who flew to Beijing for Friday’s opening of the Winter Olympic Games.

Not having left China since 2019 amid the pandemic, Xi is holding a series of meetings on the sidelines of the Games with leaders whose mostly undemocratic countries are anxious to strengthen relations with the rising superpower and increasingly identify with its political model of strict, one-party rule.

Also Saturday, Xi met with the heads of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Ecuador and Qatar. The leaders of Argentina and Poland are also among those in town.

Xi met also with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who expressed hopes for closer cooperation on “peace and security, sustainable development, including climate change and biodiversity, and human rights,” according to UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Guterres also said he hopes that China will allow UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to make a “credible visit” to China, including Xinjiang, where a million or more Uyghurs have been detained in political re-education camps. China describes the facilities as centers for job training and de-radicalization and says all are now closed.

Beijing carefully controls access to the region, and says that while Bachelet has a standing invitation to visit, her trip must be “a friendly one” and should not start with “presumed guilt.” (AP)