The former leader of China, Hu Jintao, was dramatically taken out of a session last week during the Communist Party Congress in Beijing, according to a newly released video.
It provides more specifics on how departing Politburo member Li Zhanshu speaks to Mr. Hu while taking a file to his left.
Then, China’s current president Xi Jinping issues detailed instructions to a different guy, who then makes an effort to convince Mr. Hu to quit.
The unexpected moment sparked significant discussion, with some believing that it was a calculated power move by Mr. Xi to demonstrate that the more consensus-driven Hu era was unquestionably ended and others speculating that it might have been due to Mr. Hu’s failing health.
Later, the official Xinhua news agency tweeted that Mr. Hu had left the chamber with an escort after feeling ill, but it did not cover this information domestically. For users in China, Twitter is blocked.
The event took place the day before Mr. Xi declared his third term and his top team of loyalists. The timing of the event and the obscurity of Chinese politics triggered a global guessing game as to what had happened.
Many people questioned whether it was purposeful political theater. In contrast to Mr. Hu, whose administration from 2003 to 2013 was regarded as an era of opening up to the outside world, Mr. Xi has presided over a nation that has grown more and more isolated.
The new footage, filmed by Singapore-based Channel News Asia, does not debunk the official line that Mr. Hu was ill. But it also suggests that Mr. Hu’s handling of the document in front of him played a role in the incident.
Intriguingly, just as Li Zhanshu was ready to jump up to assist Mr. Hu, Wang Huning on his left appeared to pull him back down into his seat.
The other guys in the row did not turn around as he was brought out, but Mr. Hu spoke to an expressionless Mr. Xi in the meanwhile.
A document that Mr. Hu was not permitted to read was placed in front of him during such a public meeting with cameras rolling, according to Deng Yuwen, a former editor of the Communist Party publication the Study Times.
“It was indeed an unusual situation,” he says. “No-one can explain it until there is more evidence of what was inside the file, or what was being said at the scene.”
Wen-ti Sung, a lecturer at the Australian National University, says the new footage remains inconclusive.
“China is all about order, especially at high-profile events like that and especially in Xi’s era where it’s all about control,” he said.
“So an arguably out-of-control Hu and this sudden exit definitely seems strange, and that’s why it justifies a lot of the rumors. But that’s not to say that the rumor or speculation about a purge is necessarily correct.”
But Mr. Deng says the spectacle of other senior officials – including Mr. Hu’s former second in command Wen Jiabao – looking straight ahead as Mr. Hu was led out behind them does say something about Mr. Xi’s China.
“There would be a chilling effect on the officials watching what was happening on the stage,” he said. “Although this won’t threaten Xi’s power, it will create a psychological impact on those officials.”
If the previous day’s drama was indeed unscripted and motivated by concern for Mr. Hu’s well-being, Mr. Xi’s new Politburo Standing Committee lineup the following day drove home the symbolism of the former leader’s exit – there would be no return to the policies of the Hu Jintao era.
