G20 leaders

This will be China’s second time hosting an international conference of the world’s most powerful economies since President Xi Jinping took office three years ago. The first such summit was the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 2014.

Xi is seeking to strengthen China’s international presence and gain legitimacy as the world’s next superpower. But expectations are high as the world watches how Beijing will handle the recent international tribunal ruling dismissing its territorial claims in the South China Sea and carry out its promised financial and economic reforms.

Beijing has pledged to restore confidence in its economy and pushed for greater global cooperation to counter a deepening slowdown. The president has called on various parties to contribute more towards promoting growth and improving global economic governance. But many G20 members will be trying to pressure the world’s second-largest economy to open up its protected markets, according to a report by the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

China is expected to push for progress on the climate change deals during the G20 summit as the environment is “one of the few areas where China can take leadership and not be constantly contested”, says Chinese studies specialist Kerry Brown from King’s College in London. China is also likely to “manufacture” harmony over the South China Sea and East China Sea issues during the conference, he says.

The G20 summit will be Barack Obama’s final visit to China as US president. Though global economic issues will still dominate Obama’s agenda, the talks will offer both powers the opportunity to “ease tensions and stabilise their bilateral relationship” amid escalating tensions after the South China Sea ruling and America's planned deployment of its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea, says Ni Feng, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies. As the world’s largest economy, the US will also seek China’s cooperation in maintaining stability in the world economy, which has been facing downward pressures.

Ties between Russia and China have been close since 2012, when Vladimir Putin began his second stint as Russian president and Xi Jinping became Chinese Communist Party general secretary. Putin visited Beijing in June, when the two states inked a series of trade and energy deals and issued a joint statement in which both sides voiced concern over increasing “negative factors” affecting global stability and criticised the US’ plan to deploy anti-missile defence systems in Europe and Asia.

The G20 talks will give Putin's Russia “an international platform to address its appeals and make dialogue with the West in an effort to reduce economic, military and diplomatic pressures from the West”, says Wu Enyuan, an international affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Russia is also expected to use this opportunity to seek further cooperation and support from emerging nations.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov earlier said Putin might meet US President Barack Obama during the summit. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said in June that he would meet Putin on the sidelines of conference.

Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping have met several times, but always only on the sidelines of larger multilateral talks. Though the frosty relations between Asia’s two biggest economies thawed temporarily after Abe and Xi met during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing in 2014, bilateral ties remain testy over wartime disputes and territorial rows in the East China Sea.

But experts say both sides’ top leaders have sent signals they are keen to repair relations, the latest being Abe’s meeting with Premier Li Keqiang during the Asia-Europe Meeting in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. The upcoming summit will be another such opportunity as Japan seeks to play a more prominent role in global affairs, says Sun Cheng, director of the East Asia International Studies Centre at the China University of Political Science and Law.

Japan will continue trying to push China to respect international laws but both sides’ leaders will also seek greater interaction, such as a bilateral meeting during the talks. Abe has said Asian and European leaders must address North Korea and the South China Sea among other issues. China plays a key role in both issues.

Angela Merkel has visited China nine times as chancellor, most recently in June. Germany and China have a comprehensive strategic partnership and agreements to foster cooperation in hi-tech development and advanced manufacturing.

During her June visit, Merkel raised the topic of China’s steel over-production, calling it a “crisis” and “a difficult situation for all European member states”. Germany has also voiced concern over what it says is the unfair treatment of its businesses operating in China as well as the tightening of cyber and national security rules. The country also wants China to contribute solving to the refugee problem in Europe as the continent struggles to handle the influx of migrants and asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa.

Germany’s influence in the European Union has been boosted after the global financial crisis, but Britain’s vote to leave the EU means Berlin will lose a strong supporter in free trade and economy within Europe. The country will put on a confident front nevertheless.

During the G20 talks, it is likely to aim for agreement on narrowing the growth gap between developed and developing countries as well as on a proposal to address unemployment and problems faced by the middle class. The green economy and how better to address climate change will likely also be on its agenda.

Germany, which will hold the G20 presidency next year, hopes to increase financial transparency and promote fair taxation and better exchange of information, Merkel said in April.

Both European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk are very likely to attend the G20 summit. The Hangzhou talks follow July’s China-EU summit in Beijing.

No significant progress has yet been made on addressing Chinese exports of surplus manufactured goods or acknowledging its market economy status. European Union leaders have been criticised by EU industrial groups for being soft on Beijing.

Faced with weak economic growth, a refugee crisis and the impact of Brexit, the EU is expected to support the improving of global governance in sustainable growth, employment and fighting terrorism. It will likely also promote trade freedom and highlight the importance of economic integration in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Seoul’s relations with China have soured of late after an agreement to deploy the US Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea. South Korean experts have raised concerns about the move’s potential negative impact on trade ties between the two countries. Still, analysts remain cautiously optimistic about the development of economic relations with Beijing. China is South Korea’s biggest trade partner and a bi-lateral free-trade agreement took effect in December 2015.

This will be Joko Widodo’s third G20 summit if he attends. In a July interview with state media, Soegeng Rahardjo, Indonesia's ambassador to China, said what mattered in the G20 was not statements, but that “all members will take measures to promote global stability and growth that benefits every corner of the world”.

Indonesia and China have frequently squabbled over fishing rights in the South China Sea, but the diplomatic disputes have not cast a shadow over their economic cooperation. The two countries share similar goals to boost economic growth among developing countries and address social problems such as poverty, under the United Nations' 2030 sustainable development agenda that is included in the G20 discussions.

Representing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the summit, Indonesia will seek to increase trade with more countries that could draw more foreign investment to its infrastructure development and provide a boost for its tourism industry.

Argentina’s newly elected president, Mauricio Macri, who will attend the summit, is currently adjusting the country’s ties with China from the period under its previous president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Macri is a strong opponent of Kirchner’s pro-China policy. Unlike his predecessor, who forged many energy and infrastructure deals with Beijing, the new president is focused on narrowing Argentina's trade deficit with China – its second-biggest trade partner after Brazil – as well as fostering security ties.

Diego Ramiro Guelar, Argentina’s new ambassador to China, told the Sunday Morning Post that relations between the two countries “will see closer businesses ties in both quantity and quality”. Increasing exports of Argentine products to China would be “a major topic for the bilateral meetings between our leaders”, Guelar said. At the 20th meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic and Commercial Commission in July, Beijing considered importing more beef, poultry, fruits and high-value-added products from Argentina, according to Chinese state media reports

Theresa May’s attendance at the G20 summit will mark her first act of global diplomacy as Britain’s prime minister. As Home Secretary previously, May was focused on domestic policy and she has had little involvement in her country’s national China policy. She was once known among Chinese students in Britain as the “devil woman” for her strict policies on overstaying students.

While May has been relatively quiet on her views on China, her chief policy adviser, Nick Timothy, was quoted in British political website ConservativeHome as saying in October 2015: “What are the Chinese buying with their gold? The first thing on their shopping list is British silence on human rights abuses – and the government has been only too happy to oblige.”

Malcolm Turnbull, while opposing China's island-building in the South China Sea, has been careful to protect trade ties that have broadened from Australian mineral and energy exports to services and food.

In a visit to China in April during which he met President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, Turnbull praised the country for its “economic miracle” that lifted millions of people out of poverty within a generation. He also said it was in Beijing’s interests to embrace the “rule of law”, which analysts say was a diplomatic way of pointing out Australia’s concerns about China’s human rights issues and censorship. The “long journey towards the rule of law would be worth the challenges along the way,” Turnbull said.

Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, oversaw Canada’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China in 1970, making it one of the first Western nations to do so. The elder Trudeau, then prime minister, was also one of the first Western heads of state to visit China. But his son’s interactions with the Asian power have been rocky so far.

Since taking office in November 2015, the younger Trudeau has called China a “basic dictatorship” and expressed “dissatisfaction” with Foreign Minister Wang Yi after the Chinese official rebuked a Canadian reporter who asked him to discuss China’s human rights abuses and its handling of Hong Kong. The prime minister has never visited China, but plans an extensive pre-G20 visit to mirror his father’s official visit in 1973.

France’s ties with China have been good since full diplomatic relations were established in 1964. French President Francois Hollande last visited China in November 2015 and also hosted President Xi Jinping in Paris in March 2014. Lately, the two countries have embarked on joint ventures to build nuclear reactors in China and Britain, which has drawn Chinese capital to French state-owned enterprise Areva.

Hollande has described Chinese support for climate action as “essential”. China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, pumping about a quarter of the world’s emissions into the atmosphere. The French president has personally tried to persuade Xi to toughen his stance on emissions at the Paris climate talks. The two leaders agreed that global emissions should be cut every five years.

As leader of India, China's biggest Asian rival, Narendra Modi has a complex relationship with Beijing. Himalayan border disputes, conflicting interests in African markets and China's opposition to India joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group have soured ties. Even so, bilateral trade stands at about US$71 billion a year and the state leaders have paid visits to each other.

In 2014, Modi took aim at what he called China’s “mindset of expansion” as he spoke of India’s Arunachal Pradesh region that borders China. Beijing claims most of that region as South Tibet. “No power on earth can snatch away Arunachal Pradesh,” he said at the time. Despite that, on his May 2015 visit to China, Modi said the “India-China partnership should and will flourish”.

Italy's youngest prime minister, Matteo Renzi, visited China in June 2014, where he met the country’s top three leaders President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang. The meetings came alongside 18 billion euros (HK$154 billion, US$19.8 billion) worth of deals including the Chinese acquisition of 40 per cent of Italy’s Ansaldo Energia power engineering firm. More recently, Renzi announced a pairing between his country's wine sector and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, aimed at increasing sales by nearly 50 per cent by 2020.

King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud has visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2014, when he was still crown prince. A keen partner in China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, Saudi Arabia’s links with China have received a boost lately with the signing of a 14 bilateral deals and talk of a free-trade agreement. China has also invested in a Saudi oil refinery and discussed the building of a Chinese nuclear power plant in the Middle Eastern country. The plans were announced during Xi’s January visit to Saudi Arabia.

A joint statement released during Xi's visit said: “Chinese relations are day by day on the increase so that the two countries have each become an important partner to the other in the international arena.”

Jacob Zuma made a state visit to China in December and hosted President Xi Jinping in South Africa months later. During Xi’s visit, the two countries signed 26 trade deals worth US$6.6 billion and agreed on a US$500 million development loan to a South African electrical utility firm.

China is South Africa's largest trading partner, and Zuma often praises the two countries’ cooperative potential. “South Africa’s relations with China are at the level of a comprehensive strategic partnership, with the bilateral relationship being among the most vibrant and strategic,” Zuma said in August 2015. He has also applauded the presence of Chinese troops in Africa on peacekeeping missions.

Enrique Pena Nieto has visited China several times, including attending the Boao forum and a state visit to Beijing last year as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. He has met President Xi Jinping officially many times, one of which Xi described as “a meeting between old friends”. Mexico and China have a competitive yet cooperative relationship. China is Mexico’s second-biggest trading partner and the two nations compete to manufacture goods for the United States.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited China twice; once in his role as president and previously as prime minister. Last year, bilateral trade between the two nations topped US$100 billion and Erdogan and President Xi Jinping discussed various collaborative projects under China’s “One Belt, One Road” framework.

Though economic ties are strong between the two states, Erdogan has repeatedly criticised China over its treatment of its Uygur ethnic minority. “The incidents in China are a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise,” Erdogan said of China's treatment of Uygurs in 2009. The two countries have also been in talks over a proposed Chinese-built missile installation in Turkey, but there has been little progress since its initial proposal in 2013.

Michel Temer became acting president after elected president Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May. Though Temer will attend the G20 summit, his role as president is scheduled to last only 180 days. His previous experience was primarily domestic and he has never visited China.

Temer has revealed little about his stance on China, but Rousseff, before she was suspended, was trying to put pressure on China to buy more than just raw materials from Brazil. “We want to increase exports of goods and services with more value, more industrialised goods, and we will also sign agreements in science and technology,” she said after a visit to China in 2011.