Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made an unexpected whirlwind tour of South Asia this week, with unannounced stops in India, Afghanistan and Nepal.
The secrecy surrounding the visits comes as Beijing scrambles to drum up support against intense scrutiny by the United States and its Western allies, particularly over China's ambiguity on the Ukraine war.
Observers said the unannounced nature of the trip was highly unusual and motivated in part by Beijing's fears of diplomatic isolation.
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Wang's first stop on Monday was Pakistan, China's top ally and what Wang referred to as his "second home".
After attending as Islamabad's "special guest" a gathering of foreign ministers from more than 50 Muslim-majority nations which avoided the question of China's treatment of its Uygur minority in Xinjiang, Wang flew into Kabul on Thursday for a surprise visit.
During the brief, unannounced stopover, China's highest-level visit since the Taliban took power in August, he repeated Beijing's support for the Afghan government, a regime sanctioned by the West and yet to be officially recognised abroad.
Then it was on to India.
Neither Beijing or New Delhi announced Wang's India visit before his arrival on Thursday afternoon despite rampant Indian media speculation.
After his meeting with Wang on Friday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar confirmed that the visit was not announced before Wang's arrival at China's request.
Citing unnamed sources, Indian media reported the visit was initiated by Beijing.
China's foreign ministry only confirmed the visit on Friday evening after the meetings were over.
Wang's next stop was Nepal on Friday afternoon, a visit that was also not mentioned by Beijing.
Gu Su, a political analyst at Nanjing University, said the circumstances surrounding Wang's tour were unusual.
"It is fairly rare and difficult for Beijing to keep these kinds of high-level visits under wraps," Gu said.
Gu said it showed China was in "some kind of crisis management mode", trying to adjust its position on Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine while stepping up diplomatic efforts to ramp up support from its neighbours.
"China urgently needs understanding and support on Ukraine at the United Nations and elsewhere amid fears of Western encirclement," he said.
"It needs to ensure that its international image will not be further tainted over the Ukraine crisis ahead of the sweeping leadership reshuffle later this year.
"But it is a tough job and Beijing is clearly unsure of the outcome and concerned about possible mishaps. That is why it chose not to announce Wang's trips in advance."
Wang's one-day trip to India was the first by a senior Chinese official since a deadly border clash between their troops in the disputed Ladakh region two years ago.
In all, 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese personnel were killed in the confrontation and there has been little sign of progress since then.
On Friday, Wang repeated Beijing's call for New Delhi to look beyond the persistent border dispute, which he said should be put "at a proper position in bilateral relations".
"The border issue should neither define nor affect the overall development of the China-India ties," he said.
But in separate meetings with Wang, both Jaishankar and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval pressed for a de-escalation at the border and linked the normalisation of bilateral ties to an early and complete disengagement of troops from their borders.
Jaishankar said bluntly after the meeting that bilateral ties were "not normal" and "cannot be normal if the situation in the border areas is abnormal".
"India wants a stable and predictable relationship but restoration of normalcy will require a restoration of peace and tranquillity," he said.
However, Beijing tried to play down their differences. China's foreign ministry said on Saturday that Wang called for transitioning the border issue from a state of emergency response to normal management as soon as possible.
It said both Wang and Doval agreed to speed up the resolution of remaining issues, properly manage the situation on the ground and avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations.
Beijing appeared more focused on enlisting New Delhi's support for the BRICS leaders summit to be hosted by China later this year, with Wang extending an invite to Doval for a visit to China to expedite the largely stalled talks on the border stand-off.
Wang also sought to gauge India's position on the war in Ukraine, with a joint call for "an immediate ceasefire as well as return to diplomacy and dialogue".
Both China and India have so far rejected Western calls to call out Moscow's aggression and were among more than 30 countries that abstained from UN General Assembly votes on resolutions blaming Russia for the escalating humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Yun Sun, a senior fellow at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said Wang's arrival in New Delhi was already a success for China.
"With what happened between them in 2020, the cold-shoulder treatment [that Wang may have got during the trip] is expected. But for the trip to happen itself is a success," she said.
But it was unlikely India would be willing to align with China as New Delhi, like other abstaining countries such as Vietnam, was "reluctant to appear pro-China", she said.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said New Delhi and Beijing had remained ambivalent on Ukraine for different reasons and were unlikely to mend their ties.
"India's motive is closely related to its concern about China because it relies on Russian arms supply to counter Beijing and Islamabad. Besides, their border dispute remains the top challenge to bilateral ties," he said.
Shi said the evolving situation in the Ukraine war might decide which side most developing countries would choose and how they swung their votes in the future.
"Unlike the US and its allies, most countries don't want to choose sides between the West and Russia," he said.
"Their stance will be decided by the way Moscow proceeds with the war. But with deliberate assaults on a civilian population which have left over 3.7 million people fleeing Ukraine, I don't think many countries would condone and support such a brutal war."
Shi warned that China's diplomatic efforts to enlist support for its "neutrality" might not achieve much.
"There's no denying that China's influence on its neighbours and many developing countries is rather limited. Since the Ukraine issue does not figure prominently in China's relations with most of its neighbours, it may not play a big role in changing their attitudes towards China," Shi said.
Gu of Nanjing University agreed.
"India and other South Asian countries are important for stabilising China's external environment ahead of the Communist Party's national congress and China has to make efforts to try to sway their opinions, which is the key message of Wang's tour," he said.
"China cannot afford to be seen as enabling Russia or the kind of international isolation Moscow is going through as a result of Western sanctions."
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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