Military purge begins in China but where is Chinese president Xi Jinping? His absence raises questions like…

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been missing from the public eye for long now. Some recent events indicate that perhaps Xi Jinping is now gradually moving towards distributing his power in the institutional structure or paving the way for a possible successor. Xi Jinping also skipped the 2025 Rio Summit for the first time in over a decade. The prolonged absence is also raising questions is all well within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)?

Where is Xi Jinping?

A video of him interacting with Singaporean PM Lawrence Wong on June 24 was released after a clip of his June 20 meeting with New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon. Before this, he had been absent from any state media coverage since June 4. That was the day when he met Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Zhongnanhai.

Is anything big happening in CCP?

According to reports, China’s military is facing a sweeping purge and internal shake-ups. Several top generals and defence officials have been ousted or have “gone missing”.

Is Xi Jinping going to retire?

China is going to have a Congress meeting in the year 2027, in which a new president is elected. But in 2018, Xi Jinping changed the country’s constitution, which said that a person cannot become president more than twice. After which people had assumed that Xi Jinping wants to remain president for life. At the same time, in a report by the South China Morning Post, a Chinese analyst, on the condition of anonymity, said that “these rules are probably being brought because the time for transfer of power is coming.” So then the question is, is the President of China going to change in the year 2027 and has that process started with this meeting?

Will the Hu Jintao bloc take the precedence?

Recent developments suggest the revival of Hu Jintao bloc’s influence. former Chinese President Hu Jintao, 82, (in power from 2003 to 2013), was unexpectedly escorted out of the Great Hall of the People.
The state media said Hu’s exit was due to health issues. But footage suggested otherwise, showing a hesitant Hu reaching for papers, Xi looking away, and no one stepping in to assist. Reports also suggest that Wang Yang, a reform-minded technocrat, once considered for the Politburo Standing Committee, to be a potential successor to Xi. Wang is from the Hu bloc. Amid all these factors, Xi’s unusual absence from public view has sparked questions.

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