The South China Morning Post, citing anonymous sources, reported on Tuesday that genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping will be skipping the upcoming BRICS summit in Brazil due to a “scheduling conflict,” the first time in the history of the coalition that Xi would be absent.
The nations of BRICS – led by its most powerful members, China and Russia – are expected to meet for a summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 6 and 7. Brazil assumed the presidency of the bloc from Russia in January, which hosted the last high-level summit in Kazan in October. Xi Jinping was arguably the most prominent leader at that summit aside from host Vladimir Putin, embracing Russia and signing onto a joint statement that focused on condemning Israel for protecting itself from jihadist threats from Hamas and other Iranian proxy terror groups.
BRICS is a security and economic coalition anchored by its core members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – that has also inducted into its member Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Indonesia. BRICS added 13 “partner” countries during the Kazan summit including Nigeria, Cuba, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
The coalition touts itself as an initiative to pursue the establishment of a “multipolar” world – which, in reality, translates to a concerted effort to erode American influence around the world and replace it with the voices of some of the planet’s most repressive regimes. Among the specific initiatives BRICS has pursued unsuccessfully are the establishment of a joint currency to replace the dominant U.S. dollar and pressuring the United Nations to give permanent Security Council seats to more of its members (currently, Russia and China hold permanent seats).
The Morning Post reported on Tuesday that China is planning to send Premier Li Qiang to Rio de Janeiro instead of Xi. The newspaper’s Chinese sources noted that Xi has met with the socialist president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, two times in the past year, and thus does not have any urgency about a visit to the country. It also shared that anonymous Brazilian sources expressed “frustration” over China not supporting their hosting efforts with a visit from its dictator and claimed that Lula’s last visit to Beijing, in May, was conducted with “the expectation that the Chinese president would reciprocate.”
Lula, at 79, is one of BRICS’s oldest heads of state and failed to attend the summit in Kazan after falling and hitting his head in a “domestic” accident, requiring surgery. The trip to Beijing occurred less than a year later.
The Hong Kong newspaper noted in its coverage that Brazilian leaders had publicly pressured the Chinese government to send a robust delegation to the summit in July. Top Lula foreign policy aide Celso Amorim declared, “BRICS without China is not BRICS,” specifically calling for Xi Jinping to attend the upcoming event.
Neither China nor Brazil has publicly offered any clarity on the status of Xi Jinping’s attendance at the summit. The Chinese Foreign Ministry addressed questions about the Morning Post report on Wednesday, but spokesman Guo Jiakun stated only, “On China’s attendance at the BRICS Summit, we will release information in due course. Please stay tuned.”
Guo nonetheless defended BRICS as “a force for progress that champions global peace and stability and defends international fairness and justice.”
“China and Brazil are two major countries in the world and representative members in the Global South. China supports Brazil’s BRICS presidency and will jointly move forward the greater BRICS cooperation,” Guo told reporters.
The BRICS summit will follow a difficult few months for the members of the coalition. In May, South Africa found itself embroiled in an international controversy as the government of the United States offered asylum to citizens of the country facing persecution for being white farmers. President Cyril Ramaphosa denied that any such persecution exists and referred to the refugees as “cowards.” During a meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House, Trump confronted Ramaphosa with video evidence of politicians in the country calling for genocide of white South Africans, disproving Ramaphosa’s claims and creating a moment of embarrassment for the coalition. Other BRICS countries took no action in defense of South Africa during the controversy.
The South Africa episode was a prelude to the much more challenging situation of BRICS member Iran becoming embroiled in an active military conflict this month. The government of Israel announced a military operation on July 13 to protect itself from Iran’s illicit nuclear development, targeting some of Iran’s most prominent military and terrorist leaders as well as key sites such as missile depots and launchers. The conflict reached a climax on Saturday, when President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s most critical uranium enrichment facilities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made a firm appeal for international support during the conflict, declaring, “the international community must take a stand, because it is not just Iran that is being threatened, it’s the very foundations of international law that are being challenged.” Iran’s BRICS allies largely failed to heed that call.
The government of Russia welcomed Araghchi for a visit this week, but Putin made clear in public comments that, beyond having no appetite for another military engagement in addition to his invasion of Ukraine, he viewed Israel as a brotherly nation. The Chinese government led an effort to pass a resolution at the Security Council this weekend calling for a ceasefire – which became instantly irrelevant when President Trump announced a ceasefire on Monday.
BRICS as an entity issued a statement with weekend expressing “grave concern” over the strikes on Iran, declaring the “urgent need to break the cycle of violence and restore peace.” Other than calling for “dialogue and diplomacy,” however, BRICS offered no concrete support for Iran, undermining its influence on the world stage.
Guo, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, emphasized the “traditional friendship” between Iran and China in his comments on Wednesday.
“China stands ready to maintain the friendly cooperation with Iran for the benefit of the two peoples and provide positive factors for peace and stability in the Middle East,” he stated.
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