On Monday, South China Morning Post reported, citing a source, that China had invited the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain to visit Beijing in November and meet personally with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with no response from the European countries so far.
"I don't know where they got this information. It's not true," Zhao said.
Top-level visits to China have been virtually non-existent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to Beijing's zero-tolerance policy amid the pandemic, resulting in extremely limited personal contacts by the country's leadership.
The only conspicuous exception was the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 4, which was attended by the leaders of Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Singapore, the Princess of Thailand, the UN secretary general and the head of WHO.