Pure State stagecraft. Kill One to Warn a Hundred as it were.
His comrade was “not feeling well” when he was escorted out, yet zero concern is registered by him or anyone and there is no sign of unwellness on Hu’s part beyond maybe some befuddlement at what is happening. Xinny the Pooh cooly waits patiently until the henchmen have completed their assignment, much like Michael Corleone in the church while the executions are taking place, then replies cooly that he can’t help à la Tom Hagen to Tessio when Hu seeks his aid.
Xinny the Pooh’s hero knew how to purge. Think the Lin Bai Incident. The only thing missing was him puffing a big cigar, à la Sadam Hussein, while the purge is conducted (if you’ve never seen that chilling scene see Christopher Hitchen’s description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jTHKJ9L1n8&t=447s.
Hu Jintao won’t face a firing squad but the symbolism is crystal clear.
Apparently Xi Jinping purged all the members of that rose up through the Communist youth league faction. Hu Jintao was the most senior member representing that faction. Hu Chunhua was looking to be the most likely to challenge Xi Jinping at the next Party Congress in 2027. The only qualified female candidate for the standing committee was also part of the communist youth league faction and subsequently passed over.
Exactly. They don’t have to kill him or even “disappear” him. The state controls the media. They can just shut him out of everything so he spends his final years as some sad, irrelevant pensioner like what happened with Kruschev when Brezhnev took over. Forevermore, the last impression all Chinese people (at least those stuck inside the state bubble) will have of Hu is one of weakness as he was frogmarched out of the Party Congress while Xi cooly and condescendingly smirked. That’s all the message Xi needs. No need to do anything else.
I don’t think he was leaving cause he didn’t feel well… The way he reached fkr Xi’s paper and Xi stopped him. The way he didn’t want to leave (or is senile), the way everyone else acted, etc etc.
Xi seems smug about the whole thing actually. I think it’s Xi giving the message that he can do whatever he wants, even to a former president. (Probably nothing is being done to him, other than removed from the room and the from the committee, but it’s symbolism)
Cheers. but peoples points seem to lean towards it was allowed to be live. And it may have been an intentional theatrics. China is well known for such things. In a nutshell, they have earned jaded theories and assumptions. the CCP has done quite a job at taking the theory of karma and turning it into a physical reality
But it is wise to be clear and open about them being assumptions.
Actually one of possible interpretations that I see is that they were so cold and that Poo looks uncomfortable because they were casting an image of weakness thanks to Hu, and perhaps they were compensating. I sensed that feeling of being annoyed and uneasy on Poo’s face.
‘People’ are not leaning towards that. Maybe a few people who don’t understand China, but in any China watcher circles or journalist in China, they are not.
Stop just making hysterical things up and justifying that it’s what ‘people’ are thinking.
Why wouldn’t it have been live? It’s not significant or interesting at all
The feed is live, it’s always live. Foreign journalists are also there filming
Anything could be possible. I lean towards Hu just being sick, but maybe Xi might want to embarrass him.
If anyone read Xi’s report from the Congress, he attacked the Hu Wen era as being a mess and the party falling apart.
In the CCTV roundup of the plenary, Hu was still in there, so it’s not a purge. Maybe just some jostling and he wanted to embarrass Hu or show to others that an era has finished
