China targets sea change in global diplomacy race with West

HONG KONG -- For three years, COVID kept China's global diplomacy goals on ice. Now, with the U.S. enmeshed in a domestic election campaign and the international community preoccupied with war in Ukraine, Beijing is back, ramping up a drive to promote its own alternative to the West's "rules-based international order."

From offering to foster Palestinian-Israel relations, to floating peace proposals for Ukraine, President Xi Jinping, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, has stepped up his global influence game amid soured ties with the U.S.