G20 Summit: Will China spoil India’s moment in the International limelight?
This has raised a lot of eyebrows as Xi has attended every single G20 meeting since he has been in power since 2013. This news has sparked a lot of speculation as a lot of people have mixed ideas of what this could mean. Li Quang, who is the premier would be leading the delegation instead. A lot of people keep on suggesting that the reason behind this is that XI is trying to avoid uncomfortable questions. Xi has the most centralized power and he is the one who makes all the decisions that is why it is so important for him to be at the G20. World leaders must have direct contact with him to ensure that everyone is on the same page with any decision that is made. The other leaders that missed it in the past would send representatives that have delegated power. In the case of XI, no representative would have much power or authority over him. This only comes weeks after Xi also missed a speech at the BRICS Summit in South Africa. This did raise concerns and people were concerned about his health and thought maybe he was hiding something from people.
Some people do believe that there was a bit of tension with Beijing, the USA, and Japan. This is believed to have stemmed from territorial disputes. It is said that there is even a bit of tension with India as well who are the hosts of the G20. XI not showing up put some idea that he was almost trying to avoid these conversations with these neighboring countries. Beijing is also under pressure from other countries as they have reduced to stop Putin from invading Ukraine. Some analysts are suggesting that XI could be avoiding this G20 as he is also in solidarity with Putin who also does not want to attend the G20.
Other analysts have pointed out that another reason why he is not attending is because of domestic issues such as widespread flooding and the current economic state of the Chinese community. These analysts suggest that XI wanted to deal with all these problems that were faced and would rather send a representative so that he could focus on the problems in his country.
Citation- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/08/why-is-xi-jinping-missing-the-g20