Hu Jintao’s ex-leader unexpectedly leaves as the Chinese Communist Party Congress closes

Hong Kong
CNN
—

Former Chinese supreme leader Hu Jintao was unexpectedly removed from the closing ceremony of a major meeting of China’s ruling Communist Party on Saturday, according to images and video.

Hu, 79, sat right next to his successor and current leader, Xi Jinping, at the table in front of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. meeting.

While sitting, President Hu appeared to be having a brief conversation with a male official, and Politburo Standing Committee Li Zhanshuu, who was sitting opposite, put his hand on Hu’s back.

Hu then appeared to get up after being lifted by an official who grabbed the former leader’s arm. Hu spoke briefly with the two men, but at first seemed reluctant to leave.

He was then escorted out of his seat by two men as other party members sitting behind the main table watched.

On his way out, Hu appeared to pause, say something to Xi, point to a leader, and pat Premier Li Keqiang on the shoulder. Both Xi and Li seemed to nod. It is unclear what President Xi said.

At one point, when President Hu stood and conversed with two men before exiting, Li Zhanshu appeared to try to get up from his seat, but a fellow Politburo Standing Committee member pulled his suit jacket and pulled him into his seat. instructed to return. Wang Xining sitting next to him.

Fu, who retired in 2013, has been seen in public in increasingly fragile health in recent years.CNN had its broadcasts in China censored when it reported Hu’s resignation. .

Hu’s resignation resulted in a dramatic moment at the closing ceremony of the Communist Party National Congress.

The week-long event, which includes some 2,300 delegates, was held on Saturday with the rubber stamp of the restructuring of the party’s elite, some 200 Central Committee members, and several phrases inscribed with Xi Jinping’s policies and ideology. I was born.

The closing event takes place the day before the party’s new Supreme Leader is revealed. Xi, widely seen as consolidating power around himself by eliminating rivals and weakening the remaining power of party elders, is expected to be reaffirmed as party leader, here. It breaks the norm of a two-term supreme leader observed in decades.