It's hard to think of a health problem that Romney or Obama could come down with that would lead either of them to literally disappear from the public sphere for even one week, let alone two. At the first opportunity they would want to be back on TV, smiling and giving the thumbs up, even if it was from a bedroom/hospital window.
Well it just shows you don't understand what Chinese leaders are to think they would behave like American politicians. American politicians need to be elected, and that dominates their choices and behavior. Chinese leaders do not, and their actions are correspondingly different.
Chinese leaders are more like high level White Hall bureaucrats. They tend not to understand, or care to understand all the PR intricacies and tricks about campaigning and the like.
If the Chinese president-in-waiting disappears without credible explanation for a fortnight, it's a serious matter. It makes no sense for the CCP to starve the world of information in a case like this. Perhaps it wasn't a health issue, but I'm not sure what that leaves - some sort of political crisis at the heart of the CCP that required Xi to be in constant talks for so long?
The fact of the matter is Xi did no 'disappear', he made if known that he suffered a back injury and cancelled some meetings to recover, and not that he is better, he is back. End of story. If you want to see conspiracy theories everywhere and refuse to believe what officials are telling you, no amount of proof or information will dissuade you as you will just dismiss it all as a cover story or fabricated.
And you're accusing the foreign media of stirring up trouble, but actually it was the Chinese social media network that did most of the speculating.
Do you have any idea how much ideal chatter and conspiracy theories there are floating about all the time on social networking sites all over the world? The rumors and stories would have died down of their own accord had the western media not reported on it, and by reporting on it, the report then went on to generate more wild rumors and it all became a self-sustaining feedback loop of BS.
This is not the first time the western media have cherry picked random baseless rumors off of Chinese BBS, remember all the 'Coup' reports when Boxilai was first falling from grace? Or about the supposed massive support for a Jasmine Revolution?
What the western media cherry picks off of Chinese BBS to report on is far more indicative of their own agendas and prejudices than the mood of the Chinese people or what is happening in China. It's what they hope will happen in China, but it seems their fantasies are all too often far removed from reality. If you want to believe everything they are peddling, be my guest, just expect to be disappointed a lot.
