China’s presumed next leader reappears in public after 2-week absence

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, center, attends an activity to mark this year’s National Science Popularization Day at China Agricultural University in Beijing, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2012. China’s presumed next leader Xi made an appearance Saturday for the first time since dropping from public view earlier this month, a two-week absence that fueled rumors about his health and raised questions about the stability of the country’s succession process. (Xinhua, Lan Hongguang/ Associated Press)

September 14, 2012
By Associated Press

BEIJING — Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reappeared in public Saturday after a two-week absence that sparked rumors about his health and questions about the stability of the country’s succession process.

State media said Xi toured exhibits at China Agricultural University in Beijing commemorating National Science Popularization Day, but offered no explanation of why he had dropped from sight.

Photos posted on the government’s official website showed Xi dressed casually in an open-necked shirt and black wind breaker as he toured the university. He smiled as he examined corn plants, showing no sign of disability or ill health. State-run China Central Television broadcast video of Xi looking at the plants, listening to researchers and watching students conduct experiments.

The state media reports did not address why Xi had not been seen publicly since Sept. 1, when he made a speech at the ruling Communist Party’s official training academy.

Since then, he has canceled meetings with visiting foreign dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The Chinese government has yet to explain Xi’s public absence.

Speculation over Xi’s disappearance highlights the intense scrutiny China’s succession process is under, tempered with uneasiness about the country’s opaque political system, which often seems at odds with its rising global importance.

“The leadership needs to realize how the world perceives this. They may have their own reasons for keeping it secret, but it is not beneficial to China’s global status and position as a world power,” said David Zweig, an expert on Chinese politics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics at Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C., said China watchers might have read too much into Xi’s absence and the lack of explanation from Beijing.

“If it had been a major issue, the Chinese leadership would have made it public,” Li said. “No one can run the risk of not revealing it these days.”

Xinhua said Xi, while visiting the university, spoke about food safety and made an impromptu speech in which he praised the university for sharing science with the public.

Xi is due to take over as head of the Communist Party at a leadership congress later this year, the first step in a generational power transition that will see him assume the presidency next spring, embarking on what is expected to be a decade at the helm of the world’s most populous nation and second-largest economy.

In addition to deciding personnel matters, Xi is heavily involved in drafting a major report to be delivered at the congress, as well as possible amendments to the party’s constitution. While Xi hasn’t indicated what if any changes he plans to make, expectations are high for gradual economic and political reforms to meet China’s changing circumstances, three decades after its abandonment of orthodox Marxism.