He also attended about 20 multilateral conferences via video link, including the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, where he pledged to donate 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to countries across Africa.

Ma Xiaolin, a professor at Zhejiang International Studies University in Hangzhou, capital of the eastern Zhejiang province, said such "cloud diplomacy" has become a new way for world leaders to communicate at a time when the pandemic is preventing people from meeting face to face as they did before.

"The form is not that important. What really matters is whether the leaders can maintain regular high-quality dialogues and communications between themselves," he said.

While reviewing China's diplomacy last year, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said such head-of-state diplomacy is the strongest guide for China's diplomacy.

Under Xi's leadership, China has set a good example of solidarity against the COVID-19 pandemic through greater international cooperation, provided a strong boost to global economic recovery and held high the torch of true multilateralism over the past year, Wang told a symposium last month.

As the pandemic continues to rage, with the loss of more than 5.37 million lives across the world, cooperation against the novel coronavirus remains an urgent priority for the international community.

From the Global Health Summit to United Nations' events, from bilateral phone calls to virtual meetings, Xi has advocated the Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative and the Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on COVID-19 Vaccines Cooperation to pool global efforts to fight the pandemic.

Stressing that the battle with COVID-19 is one for and by the people, Xi announced in a speech at the Global Health Summit in May that China will provide an additional $3 billion in international aid over the next three years to support the COVID-19 response and economic and social recovery in other developing countries.

So far, China has provided nearly 2 billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries, as well as international organizations, accounting for one-third of the total number of vaccines administered outside China, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Yu Jiang, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies and full-time deputy secretary-general of the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Center, said,"In the face of a persistent and unchecked pandemic, Xi has guided China's anti-COVID-19 diplomacy and promoted international cooperation through engagement in intensive head-of-state diplomacy."