MCLC: where is Xi Jinping

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: where is Xi Jinping
***********************************************************

Source: Washington Post (9/10/12):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/where-is-chinas-next-leade
r-mystery-absence-of-xi-sends-rumor-mill-into-frenzy/2012/09/10/0220f268-fb
26-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html

Where is China’s next leader? Mystery absence of Xi sends rumor millions
into frenzy
By Associated Press
BEIJING — Where is president-in-waiting Xi Jinping?

Is he nursing a bad back after pulling a muscle in a pick-up soccer game
(or maybe in the swimming pool)? Has he been convalescing after narrowly
escaping a revenge killing by supporters of ousted local Communist Party
boss Bo Xilai? Was he in a car accident? Or is he just really busy getting
ready to lead the world’s No. 2 economy ahead of an expected leadership
transition next month?

Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites have come up with all kinds
of speculation as to why the current vice president has gone unseen for
more than a week. During that span, Xi canceled meetings with visiting
foreign dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. On Monday, it was
the Danish prime minister’s turn.

Xi’s whereabouts during this sudden absence from the spotlight may never
be known. One thing, however, is certain: China may now be a linchpin of
the global economy and a force in international diplomacy, but the lives
of its leaders remain an utter mystery to its 1.3 billion people, its
politics an unfathomable black hole.

So when the presumptive head of that opaque leadership disappears from
public view, rumor mills naturally go into a frenzy.

“There is a longstanding practice of not reporting on illnesses or
troubles within the elites,” said Scott Kennedy, director of Indiana
University’s Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business in Beijing.
“The sense is that giving out such information would only fuel further
speculation.”

Adding grist to the mill, a scheduled photo session with visiting Danish
Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, which the media were asked to
cover, was taken off the program. Thorning-Schmidt is also due to meet
with Vice Premier Wang Qishan on Monday and Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

The Foreign Ministry claimed the Xi-Thorning-Schmidt meeting was never
intended to take place.

“As I said last week, China’s state councilors will meet the Danish prime
minister,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. When asked about the
rumors of an injury, Hong said “we have told everybody everything,” and
refused to elaborate.

Most online speculation about the portly 59-year-old Xi has centered on a
back problem, possibly incurred when he took a dip last week in the
swimming pool inside the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. Another rumor
has the back being hurt in a soccer game. It wasn’t clear what the sources
of the information were.

More dramatically, the U.S.-based website Boxun.com cited an unidentified
source inside Zhongnanhai as saying Xi was injured in a staged traffic
accident that was part of a revenge plot by Bo’s supporters in the
security forces. Another member of the all-powerful Politburo Standing
Committee, He Guoqiang, was also injured in a similar incident, said the
site, which acts as a clearinghouse for rumors and unsubstantiated
reports. It has correctly predicted some recent political developments and
been wildly off the mark on others.