Typo by Xinhua makes Xi ‘last’ president

BEIJING: A typo by China’s state news agency over the weekend resulted in President Xi Jinping being referred to as China’s “last” leader in a report on the annual session of the rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC).

Xinhua, a key media propaganda tool for the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), made the rare error while describing Xi.

Xi, according to many experts, is China’s most powerful presidents in decades.

Xinhua was quick to correct the error.

According to the Hong Kongbased Chinese newspaper Ming Pao, the news agency hurriedly circulated a correction, changing “last” to “top”, as in China’s top leader.

The two phrases are different by just one character in Chinese but are pronounced differently.

The original version was taken down and links for the article that were circulating were quickly found to be defunct.

It was not immediately clear whether heads would roll at Xinhua for the error. The news wire is China’s largest state-run agency and other media houses are almost always directed to carry copies released by Xinhua on sensitive topics.

The embarrassing mistake for Xinhua and the CPC comes at a time when the government is trying to tighten its rules on the already restricted freedom of press.