Visiting heads of state, foreign ministers, and party leaders from Asia, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean arrived in Beijing this weekend for what’s going to be a very busy week ahead for Chinese diplomacy specifically focused on small and mid-sized countries in the Global South.

Leaders from the tiny Caribbean island of Dominica and the Pacific Island country of Nauru, along with the foreign ministers from both Sri Lanka and Nepal, plus a high-level delegation from the Vietnamese Communist Party, all have separate meetings scheduled this week with senior Chinese officials.