China’s Xi Unexpectedly Skips Key BRICS Event

(L to R): Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China's leader Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raise their arms as they pose for a group photograph at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Aug. 23, 2023. Alet Pretorius/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping raised eyebrows on Aug. 22 by unexpectedly skipping a speech he was scheduled to deliver at a BRICS summit in South Africa, since such absences from high-profile events by top Chinese officials are “unusual.”

Mr. Xi arrived in Johannesburg on Aug. 21 and was to speak at a business forum the following day. Instead, his speech was read by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

In the speech, Mr. Xi took a veiled swipe at the United States by claiming that “some country, obsessed with maintaining its hegemony, has gone out of its way to cripple the emerging markets and developing countries.”

“Whoever is developing fast becomes its target of containment; whoever is catching up becomes its target of obstruction,” Mr. Wang read from the Chinese leader’s speech at the summit.

Neither Mr. Wang nor Beijing provided an explanation for Mr. Xi’s absence. China is a core member of BRICS, which also includes Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t attend the summit in person because of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for his alleged war crimes in Ukraine, he managed to join virtually.

Mr. Xi’s absence from the forum on Aug. 22 was “very unusual,” the China Global South Project (CGSP) stated. It marked the second instance of a Chinese official skipping an event, after former Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s absence from last month’s foreign ministers BRICS meeting.

“To say this is extraordinary is an understatement, as Chinese leaders never miss highly choreographed events like this,” the CGSP stated on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

“This is the second mysterious Chinese absence from a BRICS event this year.”

Before he was replaced, Mr. Qin also inexplicably failed to appear at last month’s foreign ministers meeting in Cape Town.

He was removed from his post on July 25, just seven months after taking the job and a month after disappearing from the public eye. The last time he was seen in state media was on June 25, when he welcomed diplomats from Russia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang attends a press conference at the Media Center in Beijing on March 7, 2023. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

The reason behind Mr. Qin’s absence remains unclear. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin had previously attributed the absence to “health reasons.”

The CGSP also noted that Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, added to the confusion about Mr. Xi’s absence when she claimed that the CCP leader “delivered an address at the closing ceremony” of the summit.

On Aug. 23, Mr. Xi met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and discussed developing China–South Africa relations. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the two leaders “reached important common understandings.”

The meeting was part of Mr. Xi’s three-day state visit to South Africa, which is his second foreign trip this year. He told the South African leader that “China is ready to step up exchanges between political parties and cooperation on training,” according to the ministry.

The BRICS business summit is the first to be held in person since 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes as the bloc seeks new relevance amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Africa’s crashing economy, and sharpening competition between Asian giants China and India.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.