Dr Lim Tai Wei on Hu Jintao's unexpected exit from China's Party Congress

China’s Communist Party Congress wrapped up on the weekend, but questions are still swirling about an incident involving former president Hu Jintao. He was escorted out of the main auditorium in the Great Hall of the People on Oct 23, just as the Congress was officially closing. It is unclear what really happened. But an exclusive video by CNA gives some clues. Dr Lim Tai Wei, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, shared his thoughts on Mr Hu's unexpected exit from the Congress.

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[ricogutz]

Former president Hu Jintao was responsible for the economic growth of China and friendly relations with other countries. He practised collective leadership and concensus-based rule. Hu Jintao was known for technocratic competence rather than persona. Unlike Xi Jinping, he voluntarily retired from all his positions after his second term and earned praises for it. The two are worlds apart.

[chitchat]

I am always impressed by such "experts" who could speak for 20 mins to mean : I don't know. Thank you CNA for wasting time on the interview

[skwb]

Dr Lim is the kind of guy that uses a lot of words to say nothing😂

[krollpeter]

If Mr. Hu had been unwell and was guided outside to recover or for medical treatment, then the other party members had greeted him, looked at him and wished him well. This is how you would treat a former president and friend.
Mr. Xi did not look at him even when Mr. Hu directly spoke to him.
There is no way they would all be sitting there with stone-faces, if this was the real reason.

[rwksasc]

How enlightening! And expert telling us what we already know and that he doesn’t know what we also don’t know. Enlightening!

[ToanPeter]

Shame, shame and terrible shameful for the way to get Ex-President Hu out!!?

[cmymotion]

"He is not feeling well" everyone think he is not feeling well while Hu is the only one think otherwise.

[planetguam]

Maybe we're overreacting. I believe Hu was confused and tried to open the red folder pre-maturely. The current president Xi, must initiate opening the red folder, then everybody else follows suit. By attempting to open the folder first, Hu was either confused, due to his illness, or was challenging Xi's authority. When the other guy saw Hu reach for the folder, he stopped him to prevent Xi from being offended, and realized Hu was not in the right state of mind due to his illness.

This is just my opinion.

[lonewolf]

This presenter did not look very happy when Dr, LIm did not give her the answers she expected to hear.

[jhhwanghwang]

CHINA Should always be Gracious.

Gracious Especially to past
President Hu Jintao. The
Immediate Past President must be
WELL Received and BE Respected..
10.000 years of Chinese Civilizations and History.
The Overseas Diaspora are
Very disappointed with the bullying, unfortunate behaviour of the comrade to the left of
President Hu Jintao..
TO be Respected and be well
Honoured..

[__adrey__]

the doctor's substance-to-word ratio is amazing

[mojazzz]

Why is this a discussion? CNA should know better that the west are manipulating this piece of insignificant event.

[eymeeraosaka]

This time CNA is more objective in its coverage of the "event." This is unlike the previous one where it already concluded what happened without evidence to support it...and it did not explore the various possibilities...

[sjvs]

Came off none the wiser watching this piece of news analysis and interview.

[guillotineblade]

From what i've been seeing in the comments. This was no Bernie sanders from the 2016 Democratic primary elections. Where he was reluctant to concede. Later returned to the stage with bruises on his face and in tears from his eyes, reluctantly, conceding before the primary was finalized.

[sammuell]

I think Hu was exhausted after days of meeting. His brain was in a state of confusion. I worked in nursing homes for many years. I understand how old people behave when their mind got confused. They would refuse any help from the nurse and put up resistant. Hu appeared to struggling but he was actually resisting any help in a confused mind. But soon his mind was back to normal and he tap Xi and Li and was escorted out by his aid for a rest. You can ask any nurse, this kind of scenario happened in nursing home very often.

[ric]

CNA almost daily speculative about this news nonstop? Keeping fingers crossed for tomorrow.

[brannyxx]

9 minutes of nothing reported…… CNA… great reporting…. “We don’t know….”

[lokechanmun]

The same video can have many interpretations depending on each media's predetermined narrative about Xi and China. However it is interpreted, the fact is Xi in 10 years' time will be Hu's current age.

[kenlee]

You conveniently leave out the parts where prior to being seated Hu Jintao acted like a senile Joe Biden unsure of what to do. Xi actually lightly touched Hu's hand/elbow and motioned for Hu to be seated.