Sep 11, 2012

China - China's leader-in-waiting skips meeting, sparks rumours

Follow Me on Pinterest
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


Business & Investment Opportunities 
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. We also propose Higher Education, as a bridge between educational structures and industries, by supporting international programmes. Many thanks for visiting www.yourvietnamexpert.com and/or contacting us at contact@yourvietnamexpert.com

No comments:

Post a Comment