Speculation after the ex-leader was led out

China: Speculation after the ex-leader's fate 

 

By: TT-AFP 

 

Published: Today 12.19 

 

Updated: Today 13.26 

 

NEWS 

 

A former leader's failing health – or well-choreographed power play? 

 

That question is being asked by observers after China's former president Hu Jintao was unexpectedly escorted away during the Communist Party Congress. 

 

Many raised their eyebrows at the strange scenes that unfolded in the middle of the ongoing closing ceremony on Saturday. 

 

In the ongoing live broadcast, two people with face masks were seen walking up to former President Hu Jintao, where he is sitting next to President Xi Jinping. 

 

They first try to lift the 79-year-old, who finally gets up and, apparently against his will, allows himself to be led away. 

 

On the way there is a brief exchange between Xi and Hu. The latter then pats Premier Li Keqiang, who was kicked from the Central Committee on the same day, on the shoulder. 

 

Silence and speculation 

 

Officially, it has been quiet, but among observers there is intense speculation about the play's significance. Is it about the former leader's witnessed failing health, or carefully planned power play in front of the television cameras? 

 

China's state-run Xinhua news agency said late Saturday that Hu Jintao insisted on attending the ceremony despite being unwell, and that he was taken away to rest. 

 

Hu Jintao's health has been the subject of speculation for many years. Already in connection with his handing over power to Xi Jinping in 2012, there was talk of Parkinson's-like symptoms, notes Alfred Wu, China expert at the National University of Singapore.

 

- He has aged dramatically, he says to the AFP news agency. 

 

Others believe that the party congress is far too well-choreographed for the event to be a coincidence.

 

 

 

Hu Jintao, President of China between 2003 and 2013, is led away from the Great Hall of the People in Beijing during the closing ceremony of the Party Congress. President Xi Jinping sits on the far right. Photo: Andy Wong/AP/TT

 

Sending a message 

 

More likely, according to William Sima, a China expert at the Australian National University, among others, is that the unexpected sort was aimed at sending a message to proponents of a different political line than Xi Jinping's. 

 

- The way Hu was more or less dragged out of the Great Hall of the People is a clear way of saying that in this new era there is no room for anyone connected to the Jiang-Hu era, he told AFP, referring to Hu Jintao and the representative Jiang Zemin. Björn Jerdén, program manager for the Foreign Policy Institute's China Center, states that the manner and timing make the speculation rampant. 

 

- There are remarkable television images that lead to speculation. I cannot say today what it might be due to, but it is clear that there is symbolism in the fact that Xi Jinping's representative as general secretary was apparently led away at the same time as his power was cemented, he told TT on Saturday.