Absence of China leader fuels rumours

12 Sep 2012, 11:01 am   -   Source: AAP
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China's president-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, has disappeared from public view for more than a week, and the rumours as to why are flying thick and fast.

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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 cancelled meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries including US Secretary of State Hillary 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, rumour mills naturally go into a frenzy.

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 also was scheduled 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.

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

More dramatically, the US-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.

The site, which acts as a clearinghouse for rumours and unsubstantiated reports, has correctly predicted some recent political developments and been wildly off the mark on others.

As if to demonstrate the range and randomness of the speculation, Boxun later replaced the report with another saying Xi was merely preoccupied with preparations to take over as head of the ruling party.

Rumours about Xi were churned further by Russian President Vladimir Putin's cryptic remark over the weekend that the start of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' meeting in Vladivostok had been delayed because Hu needed to attend to an important but unspecified domestic issue.

The tension and uncertainty are heightened by the timing ahead of a generational shift to a new leadership that is to be headed by Xi.

Xi is expected to first assume Hu's mantle as Communist Party leader at a congress held once every five years. Yet the dates for the meeting, expected in the second half of October, have yet to be announced.

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