2012-09-06   Article Source:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing on the evening of September 4th. The state-run news outlet, Xinhua said the same evening that Vice President Xi Jinping would meet with her, however on the 5th, it was suddenly announced that he had cancelled the meeting. This is highly unusual and in the absence of specific information, it has triggered a lot of speculation. China officials say it was because Xi Jinping suffered a back injury. China experts are skeptical.



Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping suddenly canceled all foreign affairs meetings on September 5, including meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, and the delegation of the Russian Federation.

Responding to reporters, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said that the current schedule had been agreed to by both sides, and he hopes people do not speculate unnecessarily.

Shi Yinhong, a professor from the International Relations Institute at the China People's University, pointed out that a last minute cancellation has never happened in the history of official high-level Sino-US meetings.

Some media speculate that it was because of differences in the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands, and that Xi Jinping deliberately wanted to embarrass Hillary.

[Xia Ming, Political Science Professor from New York City University]:
"When considering everything together, it's quite unlikely that Xi Jinping would give the American government a long face or deliberately humiliate Hillary."

U.S. officials quoted in the Wall Street Journal said it was because Xi had a back injury but the severity of the injury and the cause wasn't clear.

Another U.S. official disclosed that they received the cancellation notice after 11 p.m. on the 4th.

Because it happened all of a sudden, there is all kinds of speculation online as to whether a major event happened in the "palace". Some netizens wondered if there had been an attempted assassination.

[Xia Ming, Political Science Professor from New York City University]:
"As to whether there is a possibility of shooting incident in the ['palace'], I think people won't be surprised by any dramatic event, considering Wang Lijun's escape after being slapped by Bo Xilai."

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun quoting sources, said Xi Jinping had been injured swimming. However, can injuries caused by swimming be serious enough to prevent Xi from meeting with foreign guests?

[Chen Pokong, Political Analyst]:
"One speculation is that if he is injured, apparently it's not a minor injury. It must be a serious one. Because if it's just a minor injury, there is no reason not to meet with foreign guests. But it's hard to guess what exactly the reason is. Is it a car accident, a political murder, or an injury in daily life? But I think it's unlikely a swimming injury, because they are extremely busy now. I don't believe Xi Jinping had time to go swimming."

[Ma Xiaoming, Senior Reporter]:
"How could his back get injured? The back is the last part in the body to get injured. The more information is blocked in a society, the more rumours there will be. If they make information public, there is no need to spread rumours. This was called tracing rumours in the past. Now people have collected abundant social experience in tracing rumours. And rumours are often proved to be true."

However on the Sina micro-blogs, authorities not only closed discussions on Xi Jinping's cancellation of the meeting, but also turned off the sharing function so that previously posted information cannot be viewed either.

September 5th, early morning Beijing time, key words like "Xi Jinping", "Xi", "Xi, back" were censored. Other key words like "back injury" and "cancelled meeting with Hillary" could still be searched.

Netizens are generally concerned about two topics:
1. Is the rumour about Xi Jinping's back injury true or false? If so, how did he injure his back?
2. The charges against Wang Lijun were released on September 5th. Is it to divert people's attention?

If there is no major incident, Xi Jinping will succeed Hu Jintao as the CCP's General Secretary after the 18th Party Congress. Some people think maybe Xi Jinping was not injured at all. Maybe, he is just too busy, wrapped up in the intense power struggles behind closed doors to meet with Clinton.