Xi Arrives at BRICS Summit in Hongqi Limousine — SkimNews
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- Xi Jinping arrived in New Delhi on September 12, 2026, for the 18th BRICS Summit, traveling in a custom-built presidential Hongqi limousine described by the source as a highly secure vehicle engineered exclusively for China's top leadership.
- Hongqi, China's oldest passenger car brand, was commissioned by Mao Zedong to symbolize China's global ambition; the name translates to "red flag" and the emblem is shaped like a flag in prominent red.
- Hongqi vehicles fell out of favor in the 1980s as China shifted toward internationally recognized brands, but the marque has been revived in recent years amid a broader domestic push for Chinese brands.
- Modern Hongqi sedans are manufactured by China FAW Group Corporation, can accelerate to 100 km/h in eight seconds, and measure approximately 18 feet long, 6.5 feet wide, and around 3,150 kg in weight for the presidential model.
- Xi has adopted the practice of riding in a Hongqi over using helicopters, which the article draws a parallel to the U.S. President's use of a specialized black Cadillac known as "The Beast."
Why it matters: By arriving at a Global South summit in a domestically engineered state limousine rather than a foreign-made vehicle, Xi ties personal optics to China's industrial-self-reliance narrative — the same revival the source attributes to a broader push for Chinese brands after the Hongqi marque's 1980s decline.
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