It’s hard to tell if this is really anything, but it certainly looks bad. Xi Jinping always has that resigned look on his face, so it is hard to tell if he is thinking anything significant.
At the very least, this looks very bad. Escorting out the previous president right when the current president is grabbing a third term. Not good.
Man, Hu Jintao looks way different now than when he was president.
I think everything right now is pure speculation. Still, I wonder what is up.
We will likely never know what happened if anything.
Much like his doppelgänger Winnie the Pooh when the hunny pot is empty.
Simply put, Hu is known for being a moderate. Xi is a hardliner.
Xi wants to purge out his rivals, particularly the moderates.
“Will you leave quietly, or do we borrow Kim’s anti aircraft gun?”
I am surprised he wasn’t told in advance not to show up, unless they wanted to publicly dismiss him.
I watched the unedited clip yesterday. It was painful to see, and I had no doubt, watching it, that having it happen in front of everyone was completely intentional, as a way to signal Xi’s power over everyone in the room, and to show to the world his implacability. No-one at the table turned their head to watch, they looked grimly forward or pretended to be working on papers on the desk.
I can imagine his last words to Xi on the way out being something like “Should I really go with these guys?” as Xi nods and murmurs something soft and innocuous like “Yes, you go ahead.” I would be surprised if Hu is not under house arrest for the rest of his life.
Yes, it must have been for public show. These events are carefully managed and controlled. If Xi just wanted to sack the guy, that would have been in private, happens all the time. If it was a health emergency, it didn’t seem so urgent that they had to immediately remove him. They could have waited for a more discreet moment.
Xi was sending a message to dissenters. “Careful, or this could be you.” Proper Mao/Stalin-era stuff.
Depends on what Xi wants us to know. The whole thing was clearly done to send a message, and that message might eventually include a more explicit part. Or might not, if Xi decides that everyone else being unsure serves his purposes better than everyone else being sure.
According to national news agencies, the video has been thoroughly scrubbed from all social media and is no longer visible in China. It never happened…
Which says all we need to know. Pure 21st Century Stalinism.
So, the did it, but they don’t want to show it? OK.
It was intended to send a message to the people in the room.
I’ve read that in North Korea, Kim il-Sung was known for even more drastic tactics. He would address the crowded auditorium, “Everyone here in this room has been doing their patriotic and loyal duty. That is, except for Comrade Park sitting in Row 26, Seat 18…” and the poor targeted guy would be petrified with fear.
If you’re going to all the trouble of doing that, you might as well turn the seat into a death trap.
Saddam Hussein did something similar to half his leadership team at one point.
He’ll meet the same fate as Kim’s uncle.
Didn’t Ernst Stavro Blofeld do that at at least one SPECTRE board meeting?
Moderating:
Please don’t make a post with only a link to a youtube video and no further explanation of what you’re posting. Not everyone has the ability to hover over a link to see what it is before clicking on it, and even doing that doesn’t offer any insight into what will play on a youtube link before clicking on it.
This is not a bright line rule, but failing to inform posters at least minimally about what they’re about to click on is poor form.
Thanks.
Sure. You can add a quote of Jackmannii’s post if you like since it was just an answer to their question.