Questions do linger, and not only about Mr Xi’s health. That in itself is of course a matter of great import. He is currently China’s vice president, looks a bullish 59 years old, and has been groomed as the man who in coming months will replace Hu Jintao, the outgoing president and Communist Party chief, to lead China for the next ten years. Beyond the immediate questions about Mr Xi’s physical and political well-being loom other disturbing questions about the widening mismatch between China’s Leninist politics and black-box opacity on the one hand, and its growing economic and political importance on the other.
Vice President Xi Jinping‘s continuing absence from public life is throwing another wrench into preparations for China’s leadership change this fall when Mr. Xi is due to take over the nation’s top job, according to party insiders, analysts and diplomats. The announcement of when the meeting to start the transition will take place is already considered late, after a highly unusual year in Chinese politics, and Mr. Xi’s disappearance, apparently because of a health problem, has created another complication that could cause further delays, those people said.
looking beyond borders 