China’s Xi will skip G20 summit in India over soured relations and Premier Li Qiang will go instead

BEIJING (AP) — China says President Xi Jinping will skip this week’s Group of 20 summit in India as bilateral relations remain icy. The Foreign Ministry says Premier Li Qiang will attend in his place. A one sentence notice on the ministry’s website says that at the invitation of the government of the Republic of India, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will attend the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sept. 9 and 10. Relations between China and India have grown frosty over their disputed border that three years ago resulted in a violent clash between their troops, resulting in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese.