CHINA'S likely next leader yesterday cancelled a scheduled meeting with
Denmark's visiting prime minister, fuelling speculation about his whereabouts
after he also failed to meet Hillary Clinton last week.
The incident came at a highly
sensitive time with China's communist leaders preparing to hand over to a new
generation, expected to be headed by Vice President Xi Jinping (pictured), at a
congress due to take place in the coming weeks.
China's foreign ministry had
flagged a meeting between Xi and Denmark's Helle Thorning-Schmidt to the media
last Wednesday — the same day Xi cancelled talks with the visiting US secretary
of state, Singapore's prime minister and a Russian official.
But yesterday's meeting scheduled
at 4pm (0800 GMT) did not take place and Denmark's embassy in Beijing said
there were no plans for the pair to get together during Thorning-Schmidt's
visit.
The latest cancellation followed
a frenzy of speculation about Xi's health on Chinese-language websites based
overseas, one of which said that he had been involved in a car crash — a report
it later retracted.
The site, Boxun, blamed the error
on "leftists... trying to create rumours" and said that Xi in fact
had only some minor health problems. Other overseas media reported that he was
suffering from back problems.
In an indication of the
sensitivity surrounding the issue, Danish embassy spokesman Ming Ou Lu refused
to confirm or deny that a meeting between the two had even been scheduled.
China's foreign ministry
spokesman Hong Lei also evaded repeated questions about Xi's absence at a daily
briefing for foreign media, saying that he had "no information" to
provide.
AFP
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