China’s No. 3 Leader Absent From Major Political Session Due to Respiratory Infection

The absence of Zhao Leji has set off discussions about power dynamics within the upper echelons of the communist regime.

Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi (L) and Zhao Leji (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's rubber-stamp legislature, read speeches during the second plenary session of the National People's Congress at Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 8, 2025. Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

China’s third-highest official did not attend the closing session of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) rubber-stamp legislature on Tuesday, breaking a decades-long norm that has sparked speculation about the power struggles within the regime’s top ranks.

Zhao Leji, head of the National People’s Congress (NPC), a rubber-stamp body under the Party’s control, was expected to preside over the annual meetings’ closing session on Tuesday afternoon.

Instead, the responsibility was passed on to Li Hongzhong, the NPC’s vice chairman.

“Chairman Zhao Leji requested a sick leave from this afternoon’s meeting due to a respiratory infection,” Li announced during the “Two Sessions” meeting, which gathered the country’s most powerful figures, including CCP leader Xi Jinping.

The unusual disclosure of a senior official’s health condition occurred as China grapples with a spike in respiratory infections that local residents and medical experts have said are more severe than health authorities have claimed.

Nevertheless, the announcement breaks from the longstanding practice of keeping Party elites’ health issues tightly under wraps.

Zhao’s absence has drawn attention among outside observers, mainly because he is the third most powerful member of the Politburo Standing Committee, a group of seven Party elites who rule China.

Some media outlets reported that it was the first time in decades that the NPC’s annual closing session had occurred without full attendance from this powerful ruling council.

The last time Zhao was seen publicly was on March 8, when he delivered the annual NPC work report in Beijing. He skipped out on at least two scheduled meetings, including the closing session of the NPC’s political advisory body—the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—and the NPC’s presidium gathering, both on March 10, according to photos and reports from state media Xinhua, which didn’t provide any explanation.

While it is not uncommon for senior officials to disappear from the public eye for long periods, missing major political events, such as the opening and closing sessions of the NPC, is still rare.

The last time a member of the Politburo Standing Committee missed a major NPC plenary session was in 2006, when then-Vice Premier Huang Ju failed to attend all the “Two Sessions” meetings because he was hospitalized, an NPC spokesman said at the time. State media reported that Huang died the following year but offered no details about the cause of his death.

Zhao’s absence has set off online discussions about the power dynamics within the CCP’s upper echelons.

“It is extremely abnormal that Zhao Leji did not attend the closing ceremony of the CPPCC,” Cai Shenkun, an independent China affairs commentator, wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday.

“Now, he is openly absent from the closing ceremony of the ‘Two Sessions.’ Does this mean that the internal struggle has escalated to the point of life and death?”

A string of senior officials and military commanders have been dismissed following their unexplained disappearances in recent years.

It began with Qin Gang, the former foreign minister who was widely viewed as Xi’s protégé. When Qin failed to attend a gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Indonesia in July 2023, the foreign ministry cited “health reasons” for his absence. Within a month, Beijing announced Qin’s dismissal without an explanation, and he has not been seen in public since.

Before being appointed as chairman of the NPC Standing Committee in 2023, Zhao served five years as the head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the driving force behind Xi’s anti-corruption campaign that has simultaneously removed the CCP leader’s political enemies over the past decade.

Zhao also led the Party’s Organization Department, a powerful body responsible for appointments of senior officials. He helped promote many of Xi’s allies, according to the Brookings Institute.

Reuters contributed to this report.