China’s former top leader Hu Jintao was unexpectedly led out of the closing ceremony of a key Communist Party meeting in Beijing with no explanation, stirring questions in a usually highly choreographed event.
The visibly frail 79-year-old was sitting on the left side of his immediate successor Xi Jinping in the front row when a staff member approached him, according to clips from the 20th Party Congress on Oct. 22.
Hu’s reluctance to leave was apparent.
The staff member, wearing a dark suit and a surgical mask, first took Hu’s glasses. With Xi watching, he put both his hands under Hu’s armpits and attempted to lift Hu from his seat.
The man took a red folder belonging to Hu as another senior official arrived to lead Hu away. Looking confused, Hu at one point turned back to his seat. He exchanged a brief word with Xi and patted the outgoing Premier Li Keqiang, who sat on Xi’s right-hand side, on the shoulder. Both men nodded back.
The entire episode lasted several minutes in front of more than 2,000 people present. It took place just as international journalists entered the hall to cover the twice-in-a-decade event where Xi is poised to secure a third term in a break from Party traditions.
Circumstances around Hu’s removal from the room were unclear. On the first day of the weeklong meeting, Hu seemed unsteady and was assisted onto the same stage by a young aide.
On Hu’s left side on Saturday, senior figure Li Zhanshu wiped sweat from his forehead as the scene unfolded. He tidied his suit and was getting up to help Hu, but was pulled back by a quick tug from Wang Huning, the Party’s ideology tsar sitting next to him.
While seated, Hu at one moment reached for files belonging to Xi that lay between the two on the table. Xi put his hand on the document to hold it down; the staffer quickly moved the ex-leader’s arm off the table and again tried to get him to his feet. Barely anyone from the front row stirred when Hu passed from behind to the exit.
No traces alluding to the incident remained on China’s Twitter-like Weibo by Saturday evening. State media coverage didn’t include the scene. As the issue gathers interest in the West, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua said its reporter “has learned that Hu Jintao insisted on attending the closing session of the Party’s 20th National Congress, despite the fact that he has been taking time to recuperate recently.”
“When he was not feeling well during the session, his staff, for his health, accompanied him to a room next to the meeting venue for a rest. Now, he is much better,” it said on Twitter, which is inaccessible in China.
But multiple analysts see elements of power play in Hu’s abrupt departure.
“By having Hu Jintao leave early, Xi Jinping is trying to keep Hu in the dark about what comes out of the voting,” exiled Chinese dissident Wang Juntao told The Epoch Times. “They effectively dragged him out.”
One of the last things Hu saw at the conference was the voting to elect the Party’s new 205-person Central Committee, which will go on to determine the next group of core leaders on Sunday when Xi is expected to secure his top spot. Out of the core 25 top officials from the previous leadership team, only 12 will stay in power. Neither the premier, Hu’s protege who was once seen as a potential Party heir, nor Li Zhanshu, the head of the country’s ceremonial legislature, made it to the list.
The officials amended the Party charter in Hu’s absence to include language that many analysts believe will elevate Xi’s standing.
Feng Chongyi, a University of Technology Sydney professor in China studies and an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party, believes Xi wanted Hu to be out of the way as he moves to solidify power.
He noted that during Hu’s first term in 2006, the central Chinese authorities issued a rule barring Chinese officials—including the top leaders—from holding the same position for more than two terms. The rule is missing from the current Party charter.
Hu could “take this document out to confront Xi: this is the Party regulation, why do you not follow it?” said Feng.
Xi’s speech at the opening of the conference, which lasted a little less than two hours, saw delegates applauding over 30 times. Hu showed little enthusiasm to partake in the clapping. When Xi bowed after concluding his speech, Hu was the only one to keep his hands clasped in the front.
