Chinese President Hu Jintao's exit from the G-8+5 summit to return home to deal with rioting in Xinjiang is considered a setback to the summit at L'Aquila in Italy.
The working meeting of G-5 started today afternoon which will be followed by a dinner meeting. China is now being represented by vice foreign minister Dai Bingguo in the G-5 meeting. However, Indian diplomats refused to respond on "internal" matter of China.
The obvious question that follows is why Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was not considered capable enough to tackle the situation in Xinjiang untill Hu's return. What is hotly debated here is that if Hu thought it fit to leave the summit that was important enough for China to keep their view on a high-table on trade and climate change-related issues then it must be "a very serious" matter.
It's largely believed here that the exit of Hu from G-8+5 doesn't automatically mean that situation in Xinjiang is getting worse. It is probably more about Chinese People's party politics than the riots. Tomorrow is the major meeting of G-8+5 and Egypt.
Hu's departure before the crucial meeting from Italy for home has drawn huge attention on the ethnic conflict within China in the summit where around 3,500 journalists are assembled to report every minute detail.
However, Chinese journalists point out that this time the Chinese government has allowed media to report from Xinjiang so Hu would , probably, like to handle the sensitive issue himself.
