Removal of Hu shows no one is safe from Xi purges

If any image underlines the utter ruthlessness of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pursuit of absolute power, it is the sight of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, being reluctantly, but firmly, escorted from the closing ceremony of the Communist Party Congress.

While explanations differ as to the reasons for the former Chinese president’s undignified removal, the forcible manner of his departure suggests that it is all part of the Chinese leader’s effort to consolidate his grip on the country.

In the closed and secretive world of Chinese politics, the bitter power struggles constantly taking place between rival factions in the country’s Communist elite rarely reach the public eye – so this is remarkable.

If the reason for Mr Hu’s removal was, as has been suggested, that he was suddenly overcome by ill health, then why did the nation’s censors act so swiftly to erase any references to the former president’s unceremonious departure from the podium?

And, as Mr Hu was clearly reluctant to vacate his front-row seat, would it have not been better, certainly from a public relations point of view, to leave him in his seat until the proceedings had concluded?

This, after all, was supposed to be the crowning moment of Mr Xi’s autocratic rule, as he prepares to achieve his long-held ambition of effectively becoming China’s president-for-life when he is officially appointed to serve another five-year term as the Communist Party’s general secretary. Was Mr Hu against this? Was that why he was so publicly ejected? We may never know.

Mr Xi’s inexorable rise to become his country’s all-powerful leader has not been without its detractors among China’s ruling elite. After the turmoil that followed the death of Mao Zedong, the Communist regime’s founder, in 1976, constitutional measures were put in place – including a two-term limit for serving as president – to prevent any future incumbent repeating Mao’s authoritarian role. This arrangement, though, has been systematically eroded since Mr Xi replaced Mr Hu as Chinese leader in 2012, to the extent that, in 2018, the National People’s Congress, China’s so-called parliament, approved constitutional changes that removed the two-term presidential limit, thereby allowing Mr Xi to remain in power for life, should he choose to.

The treatment of Mr Xi’s predecessor yesterday by officials inevitably revives memories of the era of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, when key members of the Soviet politburo who fell foul of his dictatorial rule would suddenly disappear from view.

So determined were the apparatchiks to erase them from history that their faces were quietly erased from official photographs of Soviet summits.

Whatever the reasons for Mr Hu’s precipitate ejection from the platform, the spectacle of this frail old man being escorted off will serve as a timely reminder that no one, not even former Chinese presidents, is immune from Mr Xi’s insatiable quest for power.