Representatives from Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria arrive in China's capital Beijing ahead of the Belt and Road Initiative forum.
On the schedule is also a gala event marking a decade of the Belt and Road Initiative, a key project of President Xi Jinping to extend China’s global outreach.
The two-day forum, which starts on Tuesday 17 October, will be overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war, as an increasingly assertive Beijing is asked to help de-escalate the violence.