During closure of 20th CCC congress, a strange incident involving ex-president Hu Jintao

The former leader was mysteriously escorted towards the exit of the auditorium, when the media had just been invited to the room.

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The 20 e Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (PCC) ended on Saturday October 22. He appointed a central committee of around 200 people. He will, in turn, designate the twenty-five members of the political bureau within it and within the seven members of the permanent committee of the political bureau, the heart of Chinese power. Xi Jinping, as planned, appears well in the new central committee, an essential step to obtain a third term as secretary general.

On the other hand, among the other six members of the Standing Committee, four names no longer appear. That of Prime Minister Li Keqiang (67), the President of the National People’s Assembly Li Zhanshu (72 years old), the President of the Consultative Conference of the Chinese People, Wang Yang (67) and the Deputy Prime Minister Han Zheng (68 years old). The rule – which does not apply to Xi Jinping – wants leaders to retire at 68 years. Two of the four starters could have theoretically stayed in place. Li Keqiang, considered more liberal, in any case on the economic level, that Xi Jinping, said in March that he would no longer be Prime Minister. But his departure from the permanent committee was not acquired. This large reshuffle should allow Xi Jinping to further consolidate its power by having men who are close to it have. The new permanent committee will in principle be known on Sunday. On Saturday, the congress unanimously adopted a modification of the party statutes, forcing all the members to “defend the central position of Xi Jinping on the central committee and in the party as a whole”. Any opposition to Xi Jinping therefore breaks the statutes of the Party.

Congress has also approved a resolution to include in these statutes that it “opposes and dissuades separatists resolutely seeking the independence of Taiwan”.

Silence of the Chinese media

Furthermore, the closing ceremony was marked by an unexpected incident. While the press had just been admitted in the vast auditorium where the congress was held until then in camera, two men approached Hu Jintao, President of the Republic and secretary general of the PCC from 2002 to 2012, the forced to get up, to leave the tribune of honor and to leave the room. Hu Jinta was seated between Xi Jinping and Li Zhanshu. In a video broadcast by the France-Presse agency, the latter seems to want to help him, but the man by his side, Wang Huning, the ideologist of the party considered a very close to Xi Jinping, dissuades him. While one of the two employees takes him under his arm, Hu Jintao (79 years old) has no choice but to follow him, passing behind around twenty leaders who are careful not to send him the slightest look.

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