You're reading: China’s presumed next leader reappears in public

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping reappeared in public Saturday following a two-week absence that had sparked rumors about his health and raised questions about the stability of the country's succession process.

State media said Xi toured
exhibits at China Agricultural University in Beijing commemorating
National Science Popularization Day, but offered no explanation as to
why he had dropped from sight.

Photos posted to the government’s
official website showed Xi walking in the sunshine dressed casually in
an open-necked shirt and black windbreaker. Another photo showed him
smiling as he looked at potted plants, showing no sign of disability or
ill health.

A three-line report from the official Xinhua News
Agency did not address why Xi had not been seen publicly since Sept. 1,
when he made a speech at the ruling Communist Party’s official training
academy. Since then, he has canceled meetings with visiting foreign
dignitaries including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton,
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister
Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The Chinese government has yet to explain Xi’s
public absence.

Speculation sparked by Xi’s absence highlights the
intense scrutiny China’s succession process is under, tempered with
uneasiness about the country’s highly opaque political system that often
seems at odds with its rising global importance.

“The leadership
needs to realize how the world perceives this. They may have their own
reasons for keeping secret, but it is not beneficial to China’s global
status and position as a world power,” said David Zweig, an expert on
Chinese politics at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Xi
is due to take over as head of the Communist Party at a leadership
congress later this year, the exact dates for which have yet to be
announced. That’s the first step in a generational leadership transition
that will see him assume the presidency next spring, embarking on what
is expected to be a decade at the helm of the world’s most populous
nation and second-largest economy.

In addition to deciding
personnel matters, Xi is heavily involved in drafting a major report to
be delivered at the congress, as well as possible amendments to the
party’s constitution. While Xi hasn’t indicated what if any changes he
plans to make, expectations are high for gradual economic and political
reforms to meet China’s changing circumstances, three decades after the
abandonment of orthodox Marxism.

Xi’s absence also came amid the
biggest crisis in years in relations with neighbor Japan, sparked by a
renewed dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Amid a
wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations around the country, Beijing has
taken an unusually hard-line stance over the long-running dispute,
sending maritime surveillance vessels into Japanese waters near the
islands on Friday in a show of resolve.

While Xi is generally
considered a political moderate, he comes from a family of stalwart
communists and is seen by some as likely to be relatively tough on
matters of sovereignty and national dignity.

“It’s a critical
political time when the whole world is looking at this guy. If they’re
worried about uncertainty and instability, well … this will just feed
the instability,” Zweig said.

Early rumors about his public
absence said the 59-year-old Xi had thrown his back out swimming or
pulled a muscle playing football. As the days passed and Xi was still
not seen, speculation escalated to more serious conditions, including a
heart attack, stroke and emergency surgery.

While the Communist
Party has become more sensitive to public opinion over nationalism and
social unrest, it reverts to its roots as a clandestine organization
when it comes to the leaders’ private lives, particularly their health.

The
uncertainty surrounding Xi has been heightened by the party’s silence
on the dates for the party congress, widely expected to be held in late
October.

The leader-in-waiting’s sudden disappearance on the eve
of his ascension also came during a year full of unforeseen and
unsettling political developments that had already threatened hopes for a
smooth party leadership.

Most notably, the case of Bo Xilai, one
of China’s most charismatic and ambitious politicians who fell from
power in March, remains unsettled. Bo’s downfall sparked a dramatic
scandal that led to his wife’s conviction for murdering a British
businessman.

Bo’s former aide, Wang Lijun, will stand trial
Tuesday in southwest China’s Chengdu city on defection, bribery and
other charges.

Wang served as the police chief in the city of
Chongqing under Bo but lost his job for still unexplained reasons. In
February, Wang fled to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, where he told U.S.
diplomats about his suspicions linking Bo’s wife to the murder case.