Chinese President, Xi Jinping, is embarking on a visit to South Africa with the aim of bolstering China’s influence among developing and emerging nations. This comes as relations with the United States remain strained, and China faces economic challenges domestically.
As reported by CNN, the three-day state visit includes a summit with leaders from the BRICS emerging economies.
Notably, this marks Xi’s second international trip this year, a departure from his pre-pandemic active diplomatic schedule.
Xi’s prior overseas visit occurred in March, when he met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. During this meeting, the two leaders, both known for their strongman approaches, reaffirmed their strategic alignment against the US and articulated their vision for a new world order that moves away from Western dominance.
The upcoming BRICS summit is particularly significant for Xi as it’s the first in-person gathering of the group since the pandemic began. The BRICS member nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—constitute over 40 percent of the global population. They share common goals of fostering a more multipolar world and seeking a greater role in international affairs.
To support that ambition, Tsang said, “it makes sense for China to engage with the Global South, (which is), much more numerous than Western democracies and mostly authoritarian in governance structure.”
Previewing Xi’s visit on Friday, China’s ambassador to South Africa, Chen Xiaodong hailed the BRICS as “an important platform for cooperation among emerging and developing nations” and “the backbone of international fairness and justice.”
“The traditional global governance system appears to be out of order, incapacitated and absent. The international community is eagerly looking forward to the BRICS to…play a leading role,” Chen told reporters.
Xi Jinping’s visit to South Africa coincides with US President Joe Biden’s recent meetings with the leaders of Japan and South Korea. This gathering was intended to demonstrate solidarity and strength in response to escalating threats posed by China. The summit, held at Camp David, facilitated deeper military and economic collaboration between the US and its two key Asian allies. Moreover, it included pointed criticism of China’s perceived “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea.
Amid the backdrop of an increasingly intense rivalry between China and the United States, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) gains enhanced strategic importance for Beijing.
Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, noted the growing relevance of BRICS to China’s strategic considerations. This shows China’s proactive efforts to solidify its influence and strengthen partnerships, especially given the shifting dynamics in global geopolitics.
“Xi is going to be the center of the BRICS summit, given that Vladimir Putin is not attending in person,” he said.
Putin, who faces an international arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Ukraine, will take part by video from Russia.
Nantulya described BRICS as “another multilateral platform through which China can exert influence around the world – especially in the Global South.”
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But the summit also comes at a difficult moment for Xi, who is grappling with a myriad of domestic challenges ten months into his unprecedented third term.
China’s much-anticipated economic rebound from its rigid Covid lockdowns is faltering. Instead, the world’s second largest economy is beset by a confluence of problems, from a spiralling property crisis and mounting local government debt to worsening deflationary pressure.
The country’s youth unemployment rate, which hit consecutive record highs in recent months, is so bad that the Chinese government has suspended releasing it all together.
Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Washington-based Stimson Centre think tank, said the struggling economy is a key constraint for Xi’s diplomatic charm offensive, especially in the Global South.
“The economic performance (is) constraining his ability to play the great power leader he used to (be).”
China is also facing a public that has become much more skeptical about their government’s lavish spending abroad.
“On Chinese social media, there has been a lot of push back against, for instance, the Belt and Road Initiative,” Nantulya said, referring to Xi’s flagship global infrastructure program.
“Chinese citizens are asking what the rationale is to invest so much money overseas, yet domestically there’s so many problems China faces.”
In face of the slowing economy, the Chinese government has become much more selective in choosing what foreign projects to finance, according to Nantulya.
While its international funding has slowed, Beijing has stepped up political and military engagement in Africa, including increasing party to party engagement, setting up more Confucius Institutes, and training more African officers in military academies in China, Nantulya said.
“These are low-cost activities, but they have a very high impact in terms of China’s ability to demonstrate that it still cares about Africa even if it has reduced funding for major infrastructure initiatives,” he said.
