Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to be the center of attention in domestic news, despite his absence from the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in India. Li Qiang, who attended the summit in Xi's place, received minimal coverage by official media over the weekend.

On Sunday, Xi dominated the first two pages of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, even though he did not make any public appearances or engage in official meetings. The coverage focused on his recent trip to northeastern Heilongjiang province and the five letters he sent out on Saturday. In contrast, Li, the first Chinese premier to attend a G-20 summit, was relegated to page 4 of the People's Daily.

The coverage highlighted Li's speech at a summit session and his two bilateral meetings on the sidelines with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. Li's arrival in New Delhi was streamed on the official summit feed and reposted on social media platform Weibo, but the Chinese embassy in India only announced his landing with a photo of an airplane.

The G-20 summit itself received little attention in Chinese official media. State broadcaster CCTV had a brief mention of the summit's opening, and the addition of the African Union to the bloc was covered. However, by Sunday morning, there was no official report on the joint communique adopted a day earlier.

Prior to the summit, a think tank linked to the Ministry of State Security published a strongly-worded criticism of India, accusing the host of pushing its own agenda and causing disagreement. CCTV also ran an interview with India's lead G-20 negotiator, who praised China for its "constructive, positive role in the negotiations." Meanwhile, Xi remained in the spotlight with his letters and messages.

He sent a congratulatory letter to North Korea's Kim Jong Un on the 75th anniversary of the country's founding. He also wrote letters to teachers ahead of the annual celebration for the profession and to a forum on China-Central Asia cooperation.

Additionally, Xi extended condolences to the Moroccan king for the deadly earthquake in the North African nation and to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is also attending the G-20 summit, for the floods that ravaged Brazil.

Despite his absence from the G-20 summit, Xi's continued dominance of the domestic news agenda highlights his influential position within the Chinese leadership and his ability to maintain public attention and support.