BEIJING (AP) — China is hosting a global human rights forum as part of energetic new drive to showcase what it considers the strengths of its authoritarian political system under President Xi Jinping.

The "South-South Human Rights Forum" drawing some 300 participants from over 50 countries follows a conference of political parties last weekend in Beijing attended by hundreds of delegates, some of whom sung the praises of Communist Party rule.

That contrasts with the U.S.'s increasingly inward-looking diplomacy under President Donald Trump, who has set aside traditional U.S. advocacy of democracy and human rights in favor of an "America first" program. That approach has seen Washington withdraw from key forums from the Paris climate agreement to negotiations on a U.N. migration compact.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi was addressing the forum's opening Thursday.