Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

History of Chinese leaders' absences

Xi Jinping's absence from public view is not a unique event in Chinese politics.

Secretive past disappearances of Chinese leaders
THE CLOSEST COMRADE: Chairman Mao Zedong’s ‘‘closest comrade in arms’’ and hand-picked successor, Lin Biao dropped from view in September 1971 amid the radical turmoil known as the Cultural Revolution. Turns out he had died…

THE PARAMOUNT LEADER: After authorizing the military crackdown that ended the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement with untold deaths, paramount leader Deng Xiaoping was shown on state television congratulating martial law troops on June 9. Then he stayed out of the public eye for more than three months…

PURGED REFORMER: At the height of the student-led democracy movement in 1989, party chief Zhao Ziyang went to Tiananmen Square on May 19 and tearfully appealed to student hunger strikers to go home, saying ‘‘I came too late.’’ The next day, the government declared martial law and Zhao disappeared…

THE HARDLINER: When Premier Li Peng suddenly canceled a meeting with the Philippine president in 1993, the excuse the government gave was that he had a cold. Over the next four months, Li made only two public appearances…

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