BOSS XI BOOTS OLD FOE
Ex-prez hustled out
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao was physically removed from the Communist Party Congress Saturday as his successor tightened his ironclad hold on power.
Hu, 79, was escorted away from the congress by officials about halfway through the day’s events at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. There was no explanation for the exit of the frail leader, who retired in 2013. He was sitting at the head table next to Xi Jinping, who is in consolidating power and landed an historic third five-year term this weekend, making him China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Hu’s exit was watched by the 2,000 congress attendees and captured on camera. He looked confused as he was led off the stage, and stopped briefly to speak to Xi, who nodded in response.
At that moment, Li Zhanshu, the chair of the national legislature’s Standing Committee, who was sitting on Hu’s other side, tried to help Hu leave the room, until party secretary Wang Huning gestured for him to stop.
Xinhua News, China’s official news agency, reported that Hu had “insisted” upon attending the session even though he had been recuperating from an illness.
But on China’s social media platform Weibo, Hu’s abrupt exit appeared to have been censored, with searches for his name returning posts published before the weekend on Saturday afternoon. Some comments on social media suggested that Hu belongs to a faction of the party that objects to Xi’s continued reign.
Xinhua reported that Hu’s staff accompanied him to a nearby room to rest during the session and that the former leader, who will turn 80 in December, was feeling “much better.”
Back at the Communist Party Congress, officials also ruled against Premier Li Kequiang, the country’s second in command and a proponent of market reforms, paving the way for Xi’s expansion of state control of the economy.
The congress is held in Beijing every five years. Mao ruled from 1949 until his death in 1976.