China sends anti-corruption body chief to G77 summit in Cuba

Beijing, Sep 12 (EFE).- China’s anti-corruption body chief Li Xi will attend the summit of the Group of 77 (G77) developing nations in Havana, Cuba, from Sep. 14 to 16, state news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday.

Li, who is a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and is secretary of the CPC’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, will also make official visits to Cuba, Brazil and Egypt from Sep. 16-26.

The summit, which will be attended by heads of state such as Brazil’s and Argentina’s presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Alberto Fernández, respectively, and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, will be the third international meeting in recent weeks from which China’s President Xi Jinping will be absent.

So far this month, Xi has sent Premier Li Qiang to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Indonesia and the G20 Summit in India, raising questions about the priorities of Beijing’s diplomacy.

The G77 group developing nations from Asia, Africa and Latin America was created in 1976 and has grown to include more than 130 countries.

While the G77 website lists China as a member, Beijing has stated that while it supports the G77, it is not an official member, instead maintaining cooperative relations under the “G77 plus China” framework. EFE

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