State media followed Xi Jinping from departure in Beijing to landing in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS leaders' meeting, his first India visit in seven years. Coverage moved in lockstep from send-off notices to arrival footage to the first-stage session. There Xi called BRICS the world's most influential platform for emerging markets, urged members to stand on the right side of history, proposed cooperation on an AI-powered industrial plan and a due role in Middle East peace, and announced China would assume the BRICS presidency next year, with full texts of the speech carried across outlets.
Attention then shifted to a sideline meeting with Narendra Modi on bilateral trade, border issues and shared responsibilities as Global South powers. Outside the choreography, Hong Kong and foreign Chinese-language outlets continued with the five-to-seven-year sentences for three Hong Kong Alliance activists, while SCMP flagged internal splits marking BRICS' 20th anniversary.