↑Part of: Xi Jinping lands in New Delhi to present China’s BRICS proposals and meet Narendra Modi

Xi proposes BRICS special economic zone and five-point AI, smart manufacturing plan in New Delhi

Topic: technologyRegion: AsiaUpdated: i2 outletsSources: 5Spectrum: Center Only⏱ 3 min read⚠ 3d+ old

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Story Summary

SITUATION

Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a BRICS special economic zone partnership and a five-point AI and smart manufacturing initiative at the BRICS summit in New Delhi. The proposal frames China as offering AI platforms and smart manufacturing know-how to emerging economies while urging BRICS to "rally the Global South" against "double standards" (per thehindu.com).

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KEY FACTS

China proposed establishing a "BRICS special economic zone partnership" to allow countries to set up an intelligent portal, coordinate policies, and build a new frontier for open development (per thehindu.com).
Xi called on BRICS countries to "rally the Global South" to ensure the international order was "free from double standards" (per thehindu.com).
The proposal is positioned against China's push to offer its AI platforms and smart manufacturing know-how to emerging countries amid its trade and technology tensions with the U.S. (per thehindu.com).

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The immediate backdrop is the wider Middle East military crisis that erupted in March 2026, when the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iranian power plants, air-defence sites and military infrastructure after a series of Iranian attacks on regional targets and commercial shipping in late 2025 and early 2026.

Those strikes precipitated an ongoing exchange of strikes, sanctions maneuvers and diplomatic ruptures across the region through 2026, sharply raising geopolitical competition over supply chains, ports and critical technologies.

Brief

Chinese President Xi Jinping used the second session of the BRICS summit in New Delhi to propose a new economic and technological architecture for the grouping: a "BRICS special economic zone partnership" plus a five-point AI and smart manufacturing initiative aimed at shaping the bloc’s digital future.

Xi described the special economic zone partnership as a mechanism for member countries to "set up an intelligent portal, coordinate policies, and build a new frontier for open development," and he framed the offering as part of China’s effort to export AI platforms and smart-manufacturing know-how to emerging economies (per thehindu.com).

Xi also urged BRICS to "rally the Global South" to ensure that the international order is "free from double standards," tying the proposal to a broader geopolitical pitch (per thehindu.com).

The documents and speech, presented on September 13, 2026 at the New Delhi session, position Beijing as both technology supplier and political advocate inside BRICS, stressing coordinated policy frameworks for digital trade and industrial cooperation (per thehindu.com).

The initiative comes as China navigates an intensified trade and technology contest with the United States; thehindu.com explicitly links the proposal to Beijing’s push to offer its AI platforms and manufacturing expertise to developing partners amid that competition (per thehindu.com).

Xi departed for Beijing the same day he spoke at the summit session, underscoring a concise diplomatic intervention aimed at moving BRICS toward concrete economic and digital cooperation steps rather than only rhetorical unity (per thehindu.com).

The proposal’s reception among BRICS members and whether it will translate into binding commitments, pilot zones, or funding mechanisms was not detailed in the source; those implementation steps remain to be specified by the member governments (per thehindu.com).

Why it matters

Citizens in emerging economies stand to receive Chinese AI platforms and smart-manufacturing technology through the proposed partnership, altering who supplies critical industrial technology (per thehindu.com).
BRICS governments would bear the policy coordination costs of the proposed intelligent portal mechanism, which could reshape tariff, data and industrial policies between members (per thehindu.com).
China benefits politically by using the proposal to "rally the Global South" and push against what Xi called "double standards," strengthening Beijing's diplomatic influence inside BRICS (per thehindu.com).

What to watch next

Whether BRICS member governments endorse the "BRICS special economic zone partnership" and agree to pilot an "intelligent portal" at an upcoming BRICS working meeting within the next six months (per thehindu.com).
Whether BRICS leaders adopt or negotiate the five-point AI and smart manufacturing initiative into a communique at the summit's closing sessions (per thehindu.com).
Whether China and individual BRICS members announce concrete funding, pilot sites, or policy coordination mechanisms to implement the special economic zone proposal by year-end (per thehindu.com).

Where sources differ

7 dimensions

Framing differences

Only thehindu.com is in this pack; it frames the proposal as both a technical plan (intelligent portal, policy coordination) and a geopolitical move to "rally the Global South" against "double standards" (per thehindu.com).

Disputed or unclear

No source in this pack disputes any element of Xi's proposal; implementation details and member responses are not provided in the source (per thehindu.com).

Omitted context

No source here details prior negotiations among BRICS members that led to the proposal or any specific commitments from other BRICS governments.
The source does not provide projected costs, funding sources, or timelines for implementing the special economic zone partnership or the five-point initiative.
The source does not report any assessed civilian economic harms or measurable impacts on specific industries or workers that would result from shifting technology suppliers to China.

Conflicting figures

Thehindu.com gives the specific date of Xi's speech as September 13, 2026 but provides no numerical figures for budgets, pilots, or members' endorsements (per thehindu.com).

Disputed causality

Thehindu.com links the proposal to China's broader push to offer AI and manufacturing know-how amid a trade and technology war with the U.S., framing the proposal as driven by that competition rather than by internal BRICS demand (per thehindu.com).

Attribution disputes