China has domestic troubles of its own. Amid all this, President Xi Jinping is in South Africa to attend the BRICS Summit. In only his second trip abroad this year, the Chinese leader aims to boost Beijing’s influence among developing nations at the gathering. Yet, Xi acted mysteriously. He did not show up at the BRIC Business Forum.

It’s not like China to offer any explanations and the president’s no-show has only left geo-political observers guessing.

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What happened at the BRIC Business Forum?

Xi Jinping was scheduled to deliver a speech at BRICS Business Forum alongside his counterparts on Tuesday. He was expected to defend China’s economy and its support for emerging markets amid rising fears that its domestic troubles could have global ramifications. However, the leader decided to skip the forum at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.

Instead of Xi, China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao delivered a brief speech, criticising the one country “obsessed with maintaining hegemony” and going “out of its way to cripple the emerging markets and developing countries” in a thinly veiled attack on the US. He further said that America tended to fight nations that threaten its global dominance.

Wang was essentially reading out the speech Xi was to give. Quoting the Chinese president, he added, “Whoever develops first becomes their target of containment. Whoever is catching up becomes its target of obstruction.”

Xi arrived in South Africa on Monday evening and yet failed to attend the gathering. The Chinese leader was conspicuous by his absence at the business forum, which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, and his Brazilian president Lula da Silva, all of who delivered speeches. Russia’s Vladimir Putin addressed the event virtually.

Also read: Will PM Modi meet Xi Jinping? How India-China ties are a big focus at BRICS Summit

Why did Xi skip the forum?

So far, no explanation has been given and it is unlikely Beijing will address the issue. China does not answer questions related to decisions taken by its leaders.

Xi’s move has taken experts by surprise. Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific Programme at the German Marshall Fund, wondered if his absence meant something was “amiss”. She wrote in another post that the Chinese president arrived in South Africa 20 hours ago, but did not show up.

Xi Jinping fails to show up at the BRICS Business Forum. Something is amiss? https://t.co/Xkz8puYmtE — Bonnie Glaser / 葛來儀 🇺🇦 (@BonnieGlaser) August 22, 2023

“This should be ‘stop the presses’ news!” Jorge Guajardo, a former Mexican ambassador to China, said in response to Glaser’s post, reports South China Morning Post (SCMP). “An unannounced absence, especially in a multilateral forum (which the PRC seldom misses), after all the ground work with India, is truly newsworthy. If true, something is certainly amiss.”

Drew Thompson, a former Pentagon official and businessman in China who is now a senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, told Bloomberg that the leader prioritised political and security issues over business and economy. “So if he [Xi] is in a position where he has to prioritize and skip one meeting, it would not surprise me that he favours the political and security topics over the economic ones,” he was quoted as saying by the publication.

The Chinese state media did not report the absence of its president, saying that he delivered the speech without any mention of Wang. Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, tweeted hours after the event that “Xi delivered an address at the closing ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum 2023,” along with a picture showing the crowded conference room.

However, the official Xinhua News Agency English said that the remarks were read on Xi’s behalf.

If Xi gave the speech, it would be his first public address overseas this year. Before South Africa, he has only travelled outside China for two days in 2023, when he visited Russia in March.

Xi’s decision to not skip the speech on China’s economy comes at a time when the country has slipped into deflation, unemployment is on the rise, the property market is in the doldrums, and local government debt is soaring. US president Joe Biden has called the economic woes a “ticking time bomb” for the world, reports Bloomberg.

What has Xi been doing in South Africa so far?

Xi arrived in South Africa on midnight Monday and was received by his counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. Prior to the event on Tuesday, he met the South African president as part of his state visit to the country.

“Now as friends and BRICS partners, we stand together in our shared objective and quest for a better and more egalitarian world that frees the potential of all the people in the world,” said Ramaphosa in Pretoria at the opening of Xi's state visit.

“Today, standing at a new historical starting point, inheriting friendship, deepening cooperation, and strengthening coordination are the common aspirations of the two countries, and are also the important tasks entrusted to us by the times,” said the Chinese leader.

In the evening, Xi attended a dinner hosted by Ramaphosa, along with the leaders of Brazil and India and Russia’s foreign minister. He is also expected to hold a bilateral meeting with PM Modi.

With inputs from agencies