China's leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping appeared fit and healthy while meeting with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday, leaving few clues about his recent two-week absence from public life.
The smiling Chinese vice president energetically shook hands with Panetta and posed for photographs in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in what was his first public meeting with a foreign dignitary since re-emerging Saturday.
Following the meeting, Panetta told reporters that the 59-year-old leader seemed “very healthy and very engaged.” But the French news agency says Panetta offered no information as to why Xi had suddenly dropped from public view.
Xi, who in just weeks is expected to be named the country's top leader for the next decade, recently canceled several meetings with foreign officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He reappeared Saturday at a low-key event at a university in Beijing.
The prolonged absence, as well as Beijing's complete silence on the issue, led many to speculate about Xi's health, with some saying he suffered a heart attack or sustained a minor back injury. Others wondered if he was the victim of an assassination attempt or had a falling out with Communist Party leaders.
On Wednesday, Tung Chee-hwa, a vice chairman of an advisory body to China's parliament, told CNN that Xi injured his back during a sports injury, likely while swimming. Tung, a former Hong Kong chief executive, told the American television network that Xi has recovered and is now back at work.
Chinese state media made no mention of Xi's absence on Wednesday, instead giving a “business-as-usual” account of his meeting with Panetta.
The official Xinhua news agency said Xi weighed in on China's worsening territorial dispute with Japan over a group of islands in the East China Sea, blasting Tokyo's decision to purchase some of the islands as a “farce” and calling on it to “rein in its behavior.”
China has not yet announced the date of its 18th Party Congress where China's next generation of leaders, including Xi, will be announced. It is expected to be held sometime in October.
Observers say the leadership transition has been complicated by the downfall of charismatic senior leader Bo Xilai, whose wife has been convicted of murdering a British businessman.
