The leader vanishes

IN 1971 Roderick MacFarquhar, doyen of Western scholars of modern China, wrote an essay suggesting that understanding the country’s politics required an examination of photographs of its leaders, to see who was pictured and where leaders were positioned relative to each other and to Chairman Mao. Mr MacFarquhar was onto something, but this analytical technique is of little help when a leader disappears from the frame altogether as the vice-president, Xi Jinping, did from September 1st—until a brief official mention just before The Economist went to press.

Mr Xi, who is 59, is on the verge of succeeding Hu Jintao as the general secretary of the Communist Party. Yet meetings with foreign dignitaries on September 5th were abruptly cancelled. On September 8th he did not attend a meeting of the Central Military Commission, of which he is a vice-chairman. On September 10th Study Times, an official newspaper, reported on a speech by Mr Xi, but the speech had been delivered nine days earlier. Pressed on the question of Mr Xi’s health on September 11th, China’s Foreign Ministry offered no information. On September 12th an official report mentioned Mr Xi offering condolences on the death of a retired official.