Xi Jinping

An analyst based in China told India Narrative that Beijing is also keen to make the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) block a success. "To make the block a success, it knows it has to have India on its side," he pointed out. China is the BRICS chair this year. Speaking at the BRICS summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the emerging economies would be the engine of global growth. So far, 130 meetings and events have taken place this year alone.

Ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's 20th National Congress in October, the Pew Research Center published a report drawing on 20 years of surveys from more than 60 countries, RFA reported. China's perceived mishandling of the pandemic affected global opinion, but negative feelings toward China were already on the rise prior to 2020, the report said.

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hunan incarcerated Dong Yaoqiong in a psychiatric hospital for splashing ink on a poster of Xi Jinping in a live-streamed protest on social media, RFA reported. Her father Dong Jianbiao, who was detained by local police after he spoke out about her treatment, died in prison on September 23, rights website Weiquanwang quoted activist Chen Siming as saying.

The jailing of a clique of senior security officials for corruption, followed by days of strange and quickly dispelled rumours of Xi being under house arrest, have fuelled what one analyst called a "hothouse" environment mired in secrecy and suspicion, The Guardian reported. Last week, a Chinese court jailed the former vice-minister of public security Sun Lijun, the former justice minister Fu Zhenghua, and former police chiefs of Shanghai, Chongqing and Shanxi on corruption charges.

At the CCP's 20th National Congress on October 16, Xi will be seeking an unprecedented third term in office, after amending the constitution to abolish presidential term limits in 2018, RFA reported. The move comes amid growing fears of a Mao-style personality cult around Xi, as institutions and political figures compete to show utmost loyalty to Xi and his personal brand of political ideology, the report said.

Earlier on Friday, he met Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, while he was also set to meet the Kazakh President later in the day. Friday rather a busy day for world leaders gathered for the summit at it is the main summit day, Samaa TV reported. On Thursday, the Prime Minister met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Ebrahim Raisi.

According to Ushakov, the meeting between Xi and Putin is a "long-awaited personal contact", the second one over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, reports TASS News Agency. The first personal meeting between the two leaders took place in Beijing, when Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in February this year.

Li Ling, a lecturer of Chinese politics at the University of Vienna, said at an online panel hosted by the Asia Society that she expects the 69-year-old Xi to be an exception to the age limit, which she anticipates he will enforce for others.

"Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come," dpa news agency quoted Widodo as saying to Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday. Indonesia currently holds the G20 presidency. Widodo had invited Putin but the Kremlin has so far not confirmed the Russian President's plans either way.

Spokesperson Hua Chunying said President Xi will host the High-level Dialogue on Global Development in Beijing on June 24. The Dialogue will be held in virtual format under the theme of "Foster a Global Development Partnership for the New Era to Jointly Implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", and BRICS leaders and leaders of relevant emerging markets and developing countries will attend the event.