Lip Reader Decodes Hu Jintao's Dramatic Exit From China's Party Congress

A Japanese newspaper has breathed new life into rumors surrounding former Chinese leader Hu Jintao's unexpected exit midway through a significant political event last month.

The Yukan Fuji, an evening edition published by newspaper group Sankei Shimbun, claimed in a November 5 column that a lip reader had decoded a sentence said to China's former president moments before he was escorted away in front of thousands of colleagues and members of the local and international press.

The incident, still a mystery in part due to Beijing's refusal to openly acknowledge it, took place during the closing session of the Chinese Communist Party's 20th National Congress on October 22.

Pictures and videos, which weren't broadcast to Chinese audiences, showed Hu Jintao attempting to view the contents of a red folder in front of him when he was stopped by Li Zhanshu, China's No. 3 official and head of its parliament.

"Don't look. It's already been decided," Li told the retired leader, according to Kenji Minemura, whose Yukan Fuji column cited a Taiwan-based expert on Chinese politics.

Minemura suggested Hu Jintao, 79, was displeased with Chinese leader Xi Jinping's reshuffle of CCP personnel, in particular his omission of Hu Chunhua, one of China's four vice premiers and once tipped as a potential successor to Xi.

Footage of the unusual incident appeared to show Xi instructing staff members to escort Hu Jintao from the stage. Beijing reportedly censored discussions of the moment and restricted related words and phrases on Chinese social media websites.

Subsequent questions from the foreign press were dismissed, while a tweet by the official news service Xinhua stated that Hu Jintao was helped out of the room due to health reasons. Neither Xinhua nor any other state news outlet published a report about the incident.

The CCP's twice-a-decade national congress ran from October 16 to 22. The day after it concluded, Xi emerged with an unprecedented third five-year term, having also packed top leadership positions with his loyalists.

Hu Chunhua was notably absent when the CCP Central Committee announced its new 24-man Politburo, one seat fewer than before, and its seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, the country's top decision-making body headed by Xi, 69.

It further demonstrated Xi's consolidation of power in the party through the promotion of loyal cadres and the demotion of potential rivals, forcing some out before China's unofficial retirement age of 68. But the opacity of the Chinese political system makes personnel changes hard to predict accurately.

In his years as vice premier, Hu Chunhua led some of Xi's signature policies including poverty alleviation. At 59, he was considered young enough to possibly serve two five-year terms as premier, replacing outgoing Li Keqiang, 67.

However, unverifiable speculation suggested his deeper factional affiliation with Hu Jintao may have played a bigger role in his apparent departure from central politics. Hu Chunhua was considered a Hu Jintao loyalist and his protege. Both men belong to a different faction from Xi.

Unlike Li, however, Hu Chunhua retained his seat on the CCP's 376-member Central Committee. His new role in government, if he has one, won't be clear until next spring, when China's legislature sits for its annual session, where Xi's title of president should be renewed.

Hu Jintao's removal from the party congress due to health reasons was unconvincing, argued Minemura. Rumors about the former leader's Parkinson's diagnosis have been around since 2015, and he also managed to attend the opening ceremony a week earlier, the veteran journalist said.

But the health theory isn't without its merits: open discussion about the health of China's leaders, present or former, is taboo. Hu Jintao also appeared in subsequent state media footage of the gathering, suggesting he hadn't been purged, despite his dramatic exit.