Don’t read too much into Hu Jintao’s disappearance

Since being helped out of the Great Hall of the People at the end of the 20^th Party Congress, Hu Jintao has not been seen in public. Nor is he likely to be. Retired senior party officials rarely are. Apart from at congresses and big party or state occasions, such as the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the party in July last year or the military parade on the 70^th anniversary of the end of the second world war, they rarely emerge.

The premature departure of Hu from the closing session of the congress has provoked much speculation. Three explanations are doing the rounds: that Hu was ejected because Xi Jinping wanted to send the message that he was in full control and that any other faction within the party had better knuckle down to reality; that Hu was upset during the meeting, possibly as a result of reading in his folder that the new line-up of Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) had been filleted of all but Xi’s men.