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Argentine President Lula's wife attacks TikTok, Chinese president boycotts Brazil summit!
2025-07-06 21:10:02 / BOTA
The BRICS summit being held today and tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro was supposed to mark another international success for Inacio Lula da Silva.
The Brazilian president is one of the founding members of the group, which from the five founding countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has now expanded to include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Indonesia and aims to counterbalance the influence of the G7 dominated by the US and its Western allies.
Lula had prepared it carefully, making it an eagerly awaited event in the context of the trade war started by Trump and the conflicts that are shaking the world, from Ukraine to the Middle East. "It will be the best summit since the creation of BRICS," he had announced somewhat carelessly.
But no. What has ruined the celebration, diminishing its importance, is in fact the abandonment of the main founder, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who had never missed such an event in his 12 years in power. And if it is true that Vladimir Putin will not be there either, in his case this was expected, given the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant pending against him: Brazil, which is a member of the Hague court, would have been legally obliged to handcuff the Kremlin leader.
Xi Jinping's absence has become the real news of the summit. But even more sensational is the reason why the Chinese leader has decided not to go. Cherchez la femme. And not just any woman. But Mrs. Rosangela Lula da Silva, the Brazilian first lady, better known as Janja. It seems that the Chinese president is very offended by her.
It happened on May 13, during the state dinner that concluded the visit to China of Lula and his wife, accompanied by the most important Brazilian business leaders. A successful trip, crowned with the signing of Chinese investment agreements worth billions of dollars. Everything went well, the toasts were made, the banquet was almost over. When suddenly, before dessert, there was a breach of protocol: Janja raised her hand, taking the floor.
And addressing Xi Jinping, who was sitting next to her, she launched into a scathing attack on the Chinese social media platform TikTok, whose algorithm, she said, favors far-right views and is also potentially very harmful to children. The room, people who attended the dinner said, suddenly froze.
Peng Li-yuan, Xi Jinping’s wife, seemed particularly uncomfortable, calling Ms. Lula’s outburst “disrespectful” to her husband. The Brazilian president confirmed that his wife spoke at the banquet, but that it was nothing out of the ordinary, and that Xi agreed that “Brazil can choose the rules it prefers.” That may be true, but her absence from the summit feels like a slap in the face.
This issue, in addition to the disruption of the BRICS summit, has reignited the controversy over Janja, who from the beginning has never accepted the purely ceremonial role traditionally associated with Brazilian first ladies. A 58-year-old sociologist, she has always spoken her mind, for example by demanding stricter rules for social media and drawing the ire of Elon Musk and company, but responding in kind. Like during the Brazilian G20 in 2024, when in a live television broadcast she said: "I'm not afraid of you, to hell with Elon Musk". If only we had a little. /Corriere della Sera
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