2016 was a fruitful year for Chinese diplomacy.

President Xi Jinping made five trips abroad during the year, traveling a total of 75,000 kilometers and visiting 16 countries, with 30 days spent overseas.

He attended five international summits – the Nuclear Security Summit, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, the G20 Summit, the BRICS Summit and the APEC Summit – and offered “Chinese solutions” to world security and global governance.

To highlight Xi’s diplomatic achievements during the past year, CCTV.com has released an animated short film entitled “2016: Xi Jinping on world stage."

The 205-second film documents how Xi was officially endorsed as the “core” of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the sixth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in October 2016. It notes that Xi’s influence stretches into global diplomacy as well as domestic politics. “In the ‘club’ of world diplomacy, Xi Jinping has also successfully brought China closer to the center stage of the world,” the film comments.

From the G20 Summit in Hangzhou to the BRICS Summit in the Indian state of Goa and the APEC Summit in Peru's capital Lima, from supporting UN peacekeeping missions to founding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Xi’s diplomatic footprints in 2016 were plentiful.

China must establish “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics”, according to Xi. 

In 2016, Xi met with then US President Barack Obama three times and Russian President Vladimir Putin five times. During his visits to the Middle East, Latin America and Cambodia, Xi witnessed the signing of 52, 40 and 31 cooperation documents respectively.

Under his leadership, China normalized its relations with the Philippines, signing 13 bilateral cooperation documents. In addition, China established partnership with seven countries and upgraded its partnership with 11 countries.

Xi stressed the concept of equality, openness, cooperation and sharing in global economic governance at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, where 29 documents were signed, making it the most fruitful summit in G20 history.

The Belt and Road Initiative put forward by Xi was well received around the world in 2016, with more than 100 countries and international organizations expressing their willingness to support or be involved in the initiative. China has signed cooperation agreements on the initiative with 40 countries and international organizations.

Xi also displayed great humanity during his diplomatic activities last year, such as meeting with young ice hockey and soccer players in the Czech Republic, visiting the embassy of Cuba in Beijing to mourn the passing of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and sending military planes to bring back the remains of Chinese peacekeepers killed in an attack on a UN facility in South Sudan.

Xi’s confident, honest and pragmatic diplomacy as well as his idea of building a community of shared destiny for mankind has further enlarged China’s “circle of friends”, the film states. “He will lead China to play an increasingly important role on the world stage in future.”

(Video edited by Zhou Yiqiu, Li Xiang, Zhou Jinxi and Zhu Danni)