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Even Xi’s Spokesperson Didn’t Seem to Know What Happened

by Eric Olander
Image from the BRICS Business Forum 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 22 August 2023. Image via @SpokespersonCHN

President Xi’s unexplained absence from the BRICS Business Forum on Tuesday also seemingly caught the Foreign Ministry’s top spokesperson off guard as well.

Hua Chunying published a post on X following the event, erroneously claiming that “Xi Jinping delivered an addressed at the closing ceremony of the [forum].”

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