Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up SHANGHAI, Sept 4 (Reuters) – China’s top lawmaker Li Zhansu will attend the seventh Eastern European Economic Forum in Vladivostok this week, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday, becoming the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, will pay official visits to Russia, Mongolia, Nepal and South Korea from Wednesday to September 17, according to Xinhua. He will attend the four-day forum, which starts on Monday, during his stay in Russia, he said. Li, currently No. 3 in the Chinese Communist Party, is set to step down from his party post at a party congress next month, but will retain his parliamentary seat until March. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced a “borderless” strategic partnership in February, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine in what Putin called “a special military operation.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting from the Beijing and Shanghai newsroom. Editing: William Mallard & Simon Cameron-Moore Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
