Chinese President Xi Jinping will skip next week’s G-20 summit in Johannesburg, a setback for host South Africa, which is already dealing with a boycott by US President Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg. 

China’s Foreign Ministry said Premier Li Qiang will attend instead, without giving a reason for Xi’s absence, even though he joined the summit last year.

With Xi out, the gathering will lack leaders from the world’s two largest economies, along with Russia’s president, whose travel is limited by an ICC warrant. Trump recently announced that no US officials would attend after claiming—falsely—that South Africa is committing genocide against White Afrikaners.

Bloomberg writes that Xi has sharply reduced overseas travel since the pandemic, favoring what Beijing calls “home-court diplomacy,” hosting figures such as Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Kim Jong Un. He previously visited South Africa for the 2023 BRICS summit and hosted African leaders in Beijing.

Several other G-20 leaders, including Argentina’s Javier Milei and Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, also aren’t going, though European leaders, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected.

Analysts say Xi’s absence doesn’t signal a shift in China’s priorities; Scott Kennedy noted, “I don’t see any drop off in their view that those global governance institutions are important avenues for China to communicate its message.” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the summit “carries significant historical importance” as the first G-20 gathering on the African continent.

Li has often represented Xi at major events, including the 2023 G-20 in India and this year’s BRICS meeting in Brazil. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa downplayed the impact of Trump’s absence, saying, “My experience in politics is that boycotts never really work — they have a very contradictory effect,” and adding, “The G-20 will go on … Their absence is their loss.”

Privately, South African officials say the lack of US participation may actually make it easier to reach a joint declaration before handing the G-20 presidency to Washington in December.