After hiding for a period of 21 days, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping made a public appearance, dispelling rumors about his illness and rumors of political unrest within the party. However, when Xi met with Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the official Chinese media delayed the release of photos and videos of the two leaders for several hours, leading to increased speculation rather than easing concerns.
On the morning of August 19th, Xi Jinping held a welcome ceremony for visiting General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong, in Beijing. The official Chinese mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency released a bulletin at 10:34 a.m. that day without attaching any photos. Subsequently, CCTV News issued a brief report with only two sentences at 10:38 a.m., accompanied by an outdoor view of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, rather than a photo of Xi Jinping and Nguyen Phu Trong together.
Unusually, CCTV aired long-distance shots of the welcome ceremony in its various news segments before 3 p.m., with blurry figures that made it difficult to confirm if they were Xi Jinping and Nguyen Phu Trong. In contrast, Vietnamese media quickly released multiple photos of Xi Jinping with his wife and Nguyen Phu Trong with his wife, as well as close-up shots of the two inspecting the honor guard. International media such as Reuters also published close-up photos of the two leaders.
This abnormal situation immediately sparked a lot of speculation and discussion on social media platforms. Wang Juntao, Chairman of the China Democracy Party National Committee, posted on a platform, saying, “Xi Jinping met with Nguyen Phu Trong, Xinhua News and CCTV issued bulletins, but no photos. Vietnam released photos, who can interpret why Xi Jinping’s facial expression is not shown in photos?”
Some netizens questioned on a platform whether the person meeting Nguyen Phu Trong might be Xi Jinping’s body double, “Otherwise, there would be no long-distance shots from over 200 meters away, like two ants, unheard of in the history of news!”
Another netizen posted, “Xi Jinping meeting with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the CCTV report is seriously abnormal, from the welcome ceremony, meeting ceremony to the signing ceremony, it’s always a panoramic view, with no close-up shots. As a veteran television cameraman, in my judgment; firstly, there is a unified request from the top to prohibit filming; secondly, personal health issues prohibit filming; thirdly, non-appearance in person (body double) prohibits filming.”
Yet another netizen compared screenshots from the video released by the Vietnam News Agency with the photos from Xinhua News Agency, noting differences in the chin, eyes, ears, neck, and other areas, suggesting that the “Xi Jinping” depicted in the two media reports might not be the same person.
At noon that day, the official Chinese media, Xinhua News Agency, released a video over three minutes long showing Xi Jinping’s and Nguyen Phu Trong’s meeting. However, the entire video was shot from a distance, focusing on a long table, without providing close-up shots of Xi Jinping or Nguyen Phu Trong. The only sound heard in the video was Xi Jinping reading from a script at the beginning.
Some netizens questioned, “It’s strange, the video of Xi Jinping meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong was released by Xinhua News Agency, but we only hear the voice and don’t see the person. And from start to finish, there is only one panoramic shot, and even Xi Jinping’s position at the table is unclear. Has this situation happened before?”
Around 4 p.m., Xinhua News Agency finally released nine photos of Xi Jinping welcoming Nguyen Phu Trong and their meeting, including both distant shots and close-up photos. These photos were then widely reposted by major Chinese media and online platforms. It wasn’t until 6 p.m. in the evening that CCTV News aired close-up shots of Xi Jinping and Nguyen Phu Trong for the first time, and extensively reported on the matter in their evening news broadcast.
The public generally viewed Xi Jinping’s public appearance as an opportunity to debunk rumors, however, the abnormal behavior of the Chinese official media only raised more questions. Previously, when important foreign guests visited China and were welcomed by Xi Jinping or during Xi Jinping’s visits to participate in important events, the Chinese official media would usually promptly release bulletins and provide close-up shots of Xi Jinping. But this time, the official media acted abnormally by delaying the release of photos and videos, avoiding close-up shots of Xi Jinping, thereby intensifying speculation from the outside.
From the afternoon of August 20th, official Chinese media such as CCTV and Xinhua News Agency successively released news about Xi Jinping meeting with Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, foreign parliamentary leaders attending the 40th anniversary of the National People’s Congress joining various country parliamentary unions, and Xi Jinping meeting with the Paris Olympic Chinese delegation. This series of frequent appearances once again drew widespread attention.
Political analyst Chen Pokong, living in the United States, said that Xi Jinping’s reappearance was expected and not surprising. Yet, this appearance not only did not dispel doubts from the outside world but rather raised more questions.
On August 21st, Chen Pokong, in an interview with Epoch Times reporters, stated that the way the Chinese party media handled the welcome ceremony and meetings was starkly different from the practices of the Vietnamese and other international media, which itself was suspicious. He believed that the reason why the Chinese official media adopted this approach was due to receiving directives from higher-ups, as they had not confirmed whether Xi Jinping’s physical condition was normal or if any accidents might occur during the process. If Xi Jinping were seriously ill, he might faint during the welcome ceremony or the meeting, so the official media chose long-distance shots making the figures appear tiny like ants.
Moreover, Chen Pokong also noted that Xi Jinping hosted a luncheon for Nguyen Phu Trong rather than a dinner. He mentioned that a formal welcome dinner is a customary diplomatic etiquette between nations, while a luncheon is merely a working meal. There was even a photo in the official report of Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan, having tea with Nguyen Phu Trong’s wife, but no photos of the luncheon. This indicated that Xi Jinping’s physical condition may not have allowed him to carry on until the evening, as a dinner event involves a larger scale and longer duration.
“All these anomalies do not prove that nothing happened to Xi Jinping,” Chen Pokong said.
From July 29th, when Xi Jinping met with the President of East Timor, José Ramos-Horta, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, in Beijing until his meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong on August 19th, he had not made any public appearances for 21 days.
During this period, rumors about Xi Jinping continued to ferment on the internet. A second-generation red of the Chinese Communist Party recently hinted on social media that Xi Jinping had stepped down and that significant news about the political situation within China might be announced by the end of August this year.
Additionally, there were online rumors regarding Xi Jinping’s resignation due to health issues or at least a loss of power. There were rumors that Xi Jinping might step down due to serious illness. The Beidaihe conference in early August might have resulted in a political upheaval. These rumors intensified, including suggestions of sickness, a stroke, and even encountering a coup during the Beidaihe Conference in early August.
During this time, the performance of the Chinese party media seemed abnormal. On August 12th, the CCP’s official media, Seeking Truth website, published a 4,800-word article extensively praising former CCP leader Deng Xiaoping’s so-called technology ideology, emphasizing Deng Xiaoping’s promotion of technological development after the Cultural Revolution. The article only mentioned Xi Jinping’s so-called “new productive forces” theory once in the seventh paragraph, with Xi Jinping’s name mentioned only once in the entire text.
On August 10th, Xinhua Net published an article about Xi Jinping’s promotion of cultural and natural heritage protection, with Xi Jinping’s name in the title. People’s Daily focused on the historical and cultural district of Tianjin on the front page that day, mentioning Xi Jinping in the text, but not in the title, and only three times in the article. The Global Times made the Russia-Ukraine war its main headline. The evening broadcast of CCTV’s “News Simulcast” similarly did not mention Xi Jinping’s name in the headline.
During the same period, there were changes in the reporting format about Xi Jinping by the CCP media: an increase in the number of text reports, increased use of images, and a relative decrease in video reports.
The CCP held the Third Plenum of the Central Committee in mid-July. During the meeting, rumors about Xi Jinping’s health began to surface continuously, including news of his stroke or even death. Moreover, there were reports that the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the CCP, Zhang Youxia, initiated a military coup, and Xi Jinping regained consciousness after being saved and used a body double to meet with foreign guests, or that he had liver cirrhosis and underwent a liver transplant surgery, with various rumors emerging incessantly.
Sun Guoxiang, a professor at the Department of International Affairs and Business at Nanhua University in Chiayi, Taiwan, told Epoch Times reporters on August 21st that Xi Jinping reappeared in the public eye on August 19th, which was not enough to completely dispel the rumors about him during his three-week disappearance. He said that these rumors had an impact because China is not a democratic country. Under the rule of the CCP, the political speech space for the Chinese people has dramatically declined, making rumors easier to spread and ferment in this environment. He believes that spreading these rumors is itself a political expression of the Chinese people under authoritarian rule.