, Columnist
Welcome to Kremlinology, With Chinese Characteristics
An increasingly opaque Beijing, turned in on itself and restricting access to outsiders, creates policy-making risks that should not be underestimated.
The helmsman.
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When China’s former leader, Hu Jintao, was firmly escorted off the stage in the Great Hall of the People, was the 79-year-old unwell? Or was his removal during the closing session of the Communist Party congress over the weekend an intentional purge? Was it a consequence of his reported illness, or a demonstration of the unchallenged power of President Xi Jinping, who sat expressionless? And what did Hu say as he left?
No one outside the inner circle can be sure of what happened. And those who know, in today’s China, do not speak.