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Exclusive | In a first, Xi will miss Brics summit in Rio as Li Qiang leads China delegation: sources
Post learns mainland interlocutors cite his having met with Brazil’s leader twice in less than a year as a reason for absence
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Igor Patrickin Rio de Janeiro
Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend next week’s Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, marking his first-ever absence from the gathering of leading emerging economies, the Post learned from multiple sources on Tuesday.
According to officials familiar with the matter, Beijing told the Brazilian government that Xi had a scheduling conflict. Instead, Premier Li Qiang is expected to lead the Chinese delegation, as he did at the G20 summit in India in 2023.
Chinese involved in preparations, they said, cited Xi’s having met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva twice in less than a year – first at the G20 summit and state visit to Brasília last November, and again in May during the China-Celac forum in Beijing – as a reason for his absence.
As China’s leader, Xi has never missed a Brics summit. In 2023, when Xi was expected to give a speech at the gathering in South Africa, at the last minute he sent Commerce Minister Wang Wentao in his place. Beijing offered no official explanation at the time.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Xi took part in Brics meetings virtually: in 2020, when the summit took place in Russia, and in 2021, when China hosted.
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