BEIJING - When China signed up to host this week's G20 summit two years ago, it seemed like an ideal venue to showcase its financial accomplishments and assume the mantle of international leadership. "The whole exercise will be about giving China a lot of face," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan of Hong Kong Baptist University. Xi "wants to show that China will be at the centre of global governance, which the G20 is supposed to be". And then there is Japan, whose government has taken every opportunity recently to needle Beijing about the South China Sea, as well its own territorial tiff over the Senkaku islands, known as Diaoyu in China. "It seems very unlikely that Chinese authorities would take major action on the South China Sea before the G20.

Source: Bangkok Post September 01, 2016 09:45 UTC