Xi Jinping shortened Guangdong tour and returned to Beijing after coughing

Reporter :Tang Di  /  Editor: Xiaohui / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/10/15/a102964104.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

According to a source on Thursday (15 October), the Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has returned to Beijing from his “Southern Tour”. The day before, Xi had coughed in public when he was speaking in Shenzhen, and now he has returned before arriving in Guangzhou. The outside world thinks about the CCP virus epidemic and speculates that he may have ended the inspection early because of  his physical discomfort.

On 15 October, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported that a source confirmed that Xi Jinping had returned to Beijing from his inspection in Guangdong Province. The report also mentioned that before Xi Jinping went south, a Guangzhou human rights activist was arranged by the local National Security Agency for a "tour" in Meizhou on 12 October. He also ended his tour on 15 October and returned to Guangzhou to learn that Xi Jinping did not visit Guangzhou.

The outside world also noticed that the Chinese Communist Party’s official media Xinhua News Agency published an article at noon on 15 October, obviously summarizing Xi’s inspection and Huang Kunming, the head of the Central Propaganda Department who accompanied Xi’s "Southern Tour", also appeared on 15 October in Wuhan, Hubei, attended the opening ceremony of a special exhibition promoting the Chinese Communist government's response to the covid epidemic.

Earlier, Chinese media said when promoting Xi Jinping's "Southern Tour" that Xi expected to visit Chaozhou, Shantou, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai during his trip. On the day before Xi Jinping's official departure (11 October), not only did Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, and Shantou successively announce the ban on the use of drones, but Shenzhen Lianhuashan also announced its closure, and the five-star Intercontinental Hotel was requisitioned by the government. A citizen of Guangzhou told the Apple Daily that there were also special police vehicles deployed on many streets in the city, which was “very unusual.” The outside world judged that Guangzhou was also included in Xi Jinping’s “investigation” plan, but in the end, Xi did not go to Guangzhou and Zhuhai. His whole trip seemed to have ended ahead of schedule.

In an interview with the Apple Daily, Lin Heli, an expert on China issues, said that Xi Jinping had arranged five to six days in his first two southern tours, but this time it was only three days, which was obviously shortened. He believes that Xi's shortened itinerary this time may be related to the arrangement and preparation of the Fifth Plenary Session of the Central Committee.

However, the outside world noticed that when Xi Jinping spoke at the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone the day before, he not only spoke very slowly, but also coughed many times. The outside world guessed from this whether Xi ended his inspection tour in Guangdong ahead of schedule because of "physical discomfort".

It is understood that the opening ceremony of the 40th anniversary meeting of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was originally planned to start at 10 am on the 14th, but it was temporarily postponed to 10:30. Xi Jinping attended the conference and delivered a speech at about 11 noon. The live broadcast on CCTV that day showed that Xi suddenly started coughing more than 7 minutes before the end of the speech. He continued to read the manuscript after drinking water, but then coughed and drank again, and then continued to cough. When he coughed, he turned to the audience, but the sound of coughing still reverberated in the silent meeting place, making many attendees nervous.

Mainland Chinese media reported that Xi Jinping took a minibus to inspect Lianhua Mountain in the afternoon of 14 October. That night, netizens also uploaded a large number of photos on Internet social media in mainland China, saying that Xi's motorcade had visited Vanke Cloud City in Nanshan District at 5 pm on the 14th. A video broadcast on the Internet showed that there were multiple buses stopping on the roadside, multiple public security officers on the spot, and many people watching. However, some netizens said that his internship, Jinping, did not appear in Vanke Cloud City for inspection, but only a delegation from Vice Premier Liu He of the State Council of the Communist Party of China. These news and rumours have added more speculation to Xi Jinping's health.