Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend next week’s Group of 20 summit, a blow to South Africa, which is already facing a boycott by U.S. President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported.
China’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that Premier Li Qiang will represent the country at the leaders’ summit, which begins in Johannesburg on 22 November. The statement did not explain why Xi, who attended the event last year, will be absent this time around.
“Xi’s decision means that the summit, which was set up to address geopolitical and economic issues and is usually attended by heads of state, will not include the leaders of the world’s two largest economies and another member country, Russia. Last week, Trump said no U.S. officials would attend the summit after he attacked South Africa for making a false claim about the genocide of white Afrikaners. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s travel remains limited due to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court,” the report said.
Other G-20 leaders, notably Javier Milay of Argentina and Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, will also not travel to South Africa. However, several European leaders as well as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan plan to be there.
Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry official, said at a regular briefing on Thursday that the Johannesburg meeting “has important historical significance” as it is the first G20 summit on the African continent, and expressed support for South Africa as chair.
Li, China’s second-ranking official, has represented Xi at other major international events in recent years. He replaced the president at the 2023 G20 summit in India and the BRICS leaders’ meeting in Brazil in July.
South African officials have said in private comments that the absence of the U.S. could make it easier to reach agreement on the declaration, which they believe will be a measure of the success of the country’s G20 presidency ahead of the handover to Washington in December.