Chinese President Xi Jinping is heading to South Africa for a state visit and for the BRICS summit. The state visit has been undertaken following an invitation from the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Xi Jinping has preferred to stay inside China due to mounting political problems triggered by an economic slowdown due to a real estate crisis.

ALSO READ | ‘You Are Leader of the Global South’: Papua New Guinea Leader Marape Tells PM Modi

A report by news outlet Bloomberg said that during the state visit Ramaphosa and Xi will meet leaders from around Africa. The meetings are important as China seeks to expand its influence with infrastructure projects, the report pointed out.

This is the second time Xi has stepped outside China. The last time he was outside China was in March when he travelled across the border to meet ‘brother’ Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This is also the first time since taking power Xi has taken such few foreign trips. Instead he made French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visit him over the course of the last few months.

Not just economic woes, Xi has also been forced to focus on graft eating away at China’s healthcare and military industry and also a crisis in the banking sector, the Bloomberg report pointed out.

Xi Jinping will also use the meeting to woo African leaders and portray China as a champion of the Global South.

The move comes amid island nations like Fiji and Papua New Guinea and other nations of Global South inching closer to India as New Delhi has on several occasions presented their case with regards to climate change and other issues at multilateral level like the United Nations.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July that he is the leader of the Global South and Pacific Island nations will rally behind India’s leadership at global forums while addressing the FIPIC Summit.

The US also holds enormous influence in Africa and China will try to offset that. Russia could help China build new ties with restive West African nations like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali which are trying to get out of the sphere of influence of its former colonial ruler France.

Xi Jinping will also try to test the ground and see if BRICS - a bloc comprising China, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa - can be expanded. This could further worsen ties with Brazil and India as both nations are opposed to it. It could impact Brasilia-Beijing relations more as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva - a leftist - wants to bring China closer to Brazil but a proposal for expansion of the bloc could hurt relations between Brazil President Lula and Chinese President Xi Jinping.