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Chinese Official Dismisses Reports of Xi Trip to Saudi Arabia as “Gossip”

by Eric Olander
Wang Cheng (王诚) is a longtime official in the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

While Twitter was abuzz with speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping would travel to Saudi Arabia this week based on a story in The Guardian, Wang Cheng, a highly-respected and normally very reliable Commerce Ministry dismissed the idea as nothing more than “gossip.”

Wang now works in Beijing but spent most of his Commerce Ministry career posted to Oman and other Gulf countries, and he is also a Distinguished Researcher of Gulf Arab Countries at Beijing Foreign Studies University (in other words, he’s well connected on these issues).

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