BEIJING, May 17 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's special envoy, Miao Wei, will attend theinaugural ceremony of Equatorial Guinea's president-elect Teodoro Obiang Nguema onFriday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei announced on Tuesday.

Miao is China's minister of industry and information technology.

Xi congratulated Obiang on his re-election on April 29. "I attach great importance to thedevelopment of the China-Equatorial Guinea relationship," Xi said in a congratulatorymessage.