 | | On Saturday evening, the English-language Twitter account of China's Xinhua News Agency put out a message regarding an incident that stunned China watchers around the world. Hours earlier, former President Hu Jintao was escorted out of the Chinese Communist Party's national congress, seemingly against his will.
"Xinhuanet reporter Liu Jiawen has learned that Hu Jintao insisted on attending the closing session of the Party's 20th National Congress, despite the fact that he has been taking time to recuperate recently," the tweet said.
"When he was not feeling well during the session, his staff, for his health, accompanied him to a room next to the meeting venue for a rest. Now, he is much better," a second tweet followed.
While most attention was given to the second half of the tweet -- that Hu's health was the reason for the exit -- the first half of the tweet also contained a bombshell revelation. It implies that although Hu should not have attended, he did so in defiance of President Xi Jinping's wishes.
Hu insisted on attending for a reason. Did he express a desire to speak at the ceremony? If so, what was he going to say? This comes after his faction was wiped out from the leadership. The message could not have been a calm one.
Video footage shows the former leader twice attempting to return to his seat, while attendants try to lead him offstage. Judging from the Xinhua tweet, Hu would not have wanted to leave the stage at this point -- without fulfilling the task that he had in mind.
Read this week's China Up Close by Katsuji Nakazawa here.
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