Xi's missed speech at BRICS event sparks speculation

 

 Xi's missed speech at BRICS event sparks speculation

Chinese president attends Wednesday meetings after absence deemed 'very odd'


HONG KONG -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's mysterious absence from a business event at the BRICS summit in South Africa has sparked a flurry of speculation, as he had been scheduled to deliver a speech.

Xi arrived in Johannesburg late on Monday for a state visit and this week's gathering of leaders from the BRICS -- a loose grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This is only Xi's second overseas visit this year, after a trip to Russia in March.

On Tuesday, he appeared in public with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Later in the day, he was scheduled to attend and address the BRICS Business Forum, but he was a no-show. Instead, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao read a speech on Xi's behalf.

Of the BRICS leaders, Xi was the only one that did not show up at the business conference, apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes and did not travel to South Africa. Putin gave a speech virtually.

Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described Xi's absence as "very odd."

Xi did attend a dinner hosted by Ramaphosa in the evening on Tuesday, alongside Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

On Wednesday morning, he was pictured arriving at the convention center where the summit is being held. Live footage showed him attending a meeting with his fellow leaders. In opening remarks to the summit, Xi said development is an inalienable right for all countries, not just a privileged few, while calling for the swift expansion of the BRICS bloc, according to state media Xinhua.

There has been no official announcement or explanation about why Xi missed the speech on Tuesday. State media outlets only published the script, without mentioning the fact that it was Wang who delivered it.

Further fueling the questions over Xi's absence, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Xi had "delivered an address at the closing ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum." The tweet was published hours after the event, leading some users to call it out as "fake news."

Chinese officials do read out prepared remarks for Xi from time to time, but only when the president is not there in person.

Other analysts were also scratching their heads over the missed event. Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund's Indo-Pacific program, asked on X, "Where is Xi? Why didn't he give the speech at the BRICS Business Forum?"

But Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing think tank, warned against blowing it out of proportion. "There could be numerous reasons for his absence, ranging from personal to diplomatic, and it's essential to wait for official statements or more concrete information."

In the prepared remarks delivered by Wang, Xi criticized the claim by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden that the world is divided into two camps: democracy and authoritarianism.

"Deliberately creating division with the assertion of 'democracy versus authoritarianism' and 'liberalism versus autocracy' can only split the world and lead to [a] clash of civilizations," the statement said.

The speech also pushed back against global worries about China's slumping economy due to the bursting of its real estate bubble and structural woes.

"The Chinese economy has strong resilience, tremendous potential and great vitality," the statement said, adding "the fundamentals sustaining China's long-term growth will remain unchanged. The giant ship of the Chinese economy will continue to cleave waves and sail ahead."

On Thusday, Xi is set to co-chair a China-Africa leaders' roundtable dialogue with Ramaphosa, according to state media.