Xi Absent From BRICS Summit for First Time
Udumbara
The 17th summit of BRICS leaders closed in Rio de Janeiro on July 7, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, leader of the bloc’s biggest economy, absent for the first time.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the two-day gathering on Xi’s behalf.
The Chinese regime did not explain the reason for Xi’s absence.
Analysts told The Epoch Times that Xi’s absence may be attributed to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) internal conflicts, the struggling Chinese economy, and divisions among BRICS members.
The BRICS group’s first summit was held in 2009, with leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, and China meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It included South Africa the following year, and in 2024, expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
BRICS nations now represent more than half the world’s population and 40 percent of its economic output, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on July 5 at a BRICS business forum, where he defended multilateralism.
The summit in 2025 is the second BRICS leaders gathering that Putin attended remotely. In 2023, the Russian leader joined his counterparts in Johannesburg, South Africa, via video links, months after the ICC issued the arrest warrant against him. In 2024, Putin hosted leaders from the bloc’s member states in Kazan.
Since Xi became China’s leader in 2013, he has attended the BRICS summits every year, mostly in person, and by video link during the COVID-19 pandemic.
China affairs commentator Wang He told The Epoch Times that without Xi, the effect of this year’s summit would be significantly reduced.
The CCP “does not want to take the lead in confronting the United States,” following the newly reached trade truce, he said, noting that Washington has a lot more leverage than Beijing does.
Sun Kuo-hsiang, professor of international affairs and business at Nanhua University in Taiwan, said the Chinese leadership is likely to focus more on the country’s own issues given the economic pressure it is under.
Beijing’s disagreement with other member states, such as India, could also be a reason for Xi’s absence, he said.
