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The Chinese state broadcaster turned the camera away from Xi Jinping several times, while the Beijing leader coughed and struggled to finish his sentences in the closing minutes of his speech on Wednesday, Newsweek reports.
President Xi was sitting on stage with other government officials, including Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam, all unmasked at the commemorative event in Shenzhen, southern China’s Guangdong Province.
The 67-year-old Chinese leader spoke for 50 minutes, praising what he called the “miraculous” development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the border with Hong Kong. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the production center, which took place in 1980.
However, viewers of Xi’s remarks, which were broadcast live on CCTV, could see the news channel moving the frame away from the speaker several times when he coughed.
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, titled “Xi Jinping Coughs and Coughs at Shenzhen Event As Carrie Lam Walks Away from VIPs,” notes that the Chinese president “was seen coughing and drinking water.”
His report notes that Xi could be heard coughing, despite government-led television efforts to broadcast to crowds, rather than showing the president during those moments.
Publications on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have also noted the phenomenon. A headline on Taiwan’s Yahoo News platform said Xi was “coughing violently.”
President Xi began coughing during the last seven minutes of the 6,300-word speech, including coughing four times in 3 minutes, Taiwan TV TV reported.
In mainland China, CCTV news reports on the Chinese leader’s speech did not show any audio or video segments of his cough.
Searches for this incident on Chinese social networking sites, such as the Twitter-like Weibo service, did not return any results.
The future of the Shenzhen region
President Xi blatantly praised Shenzhen during his speech and promised to give the city more autonomy to grow in the future.
He referred to Shenzhen as the key to mainland China’s integration with economic activities in Hong Kong, and urged residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to invest in the future of the area.
Given Hong Kong’s recent troubles and the fact that Shenzhen exceeded its GDP in 2018, the Communist Party of China is expected to shift its focus to the hub of production, which is home to tech giants like Huawei and Tencent.
Speech on war
On his third visit to Guangdong since becoming leader, Xi toured the headquarters of the Chaozhou People’s Liberation Army.
In a speech to military leaders, Xi praised the Chinese special forces as the “elite force for amphibious operations” and urged his troops to focus their minds and energy on “preparing for war” during live-fire exercises. carried out by both Beijing and Taipei.
Editing: Alexandru Costea
