FT: China’s Xi Jinping Vanishes

The man expected to be the next leader of China, Xi Jinping, has disappeared from public view just weeks before his expected elevation to lead the Chinese Communist Party.

FT reports:

Over the past week Mr Xi has cancelled at least four scheduled meetings with visiting dignitaries including a Russian delegation, Singapore’s prime minister and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton last Wednesday and the prime minister of Denmark yesterday.

An official account did not list him among the attendees at an unscheduled meeting held last Friday by the party’s powerful central military commission, of which Mr Xi is vice-chairman.
Late last week the foreign ministry invited overseas media to cover a meeting between Mr Xi and Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt scheduled for Monday afternoon. But yesterday the ministry denied that the meeting was ever supposed to take place.

When pressed on reports that Mr Xi had suffered a back injury, a ministry spokesman said “We have told everybody everything,” and refused to elaborate.

Mr Xi’s mysterious disappearance has sparked speculation about his whereabouts and renewed political infighting just months after the purge of senior Chinese leader Bo Xilai shook the ruling party