Xi Jinping, who is expected to be unveiled as China’s next president in October, has not been seen in public for ten days leading to a flurry of online speculation about his health. 
 
 The Communist party has so far refused to explain Mr Xi’s disappearance and a foreign ministry spokesperson again declined to comment on Tuesday. 
 
 “I hope you can ask more serious questions,” Hong Lei told reporters in Beijing after being asked if Mr Xi was even still alive. 
 
 Initial rumours suggested Mr Xi had hurt his back swimming or playing football. However, the New York Times cited a well-connected political analyst yesterday who claimed Mr Xi might have suffered a “mild heart attack”. 
 
 One source told Reuters he had injured his back during his “daily swim”. But another anonymous source appeared to contradict that version, saying: “He’s unwell, but it’s not a big problem.” 
 
 One senior journalist from a Beijing admitted he was flummoxed by Mr Xi’s sudden and unexpected disappearance. 
 
 “We are all waiting for an announcement,” the journalist said, adding that he had heard rumours that a “major news [bulletin]” on state-controlled TV was imminent. 
 
 Chinese internet censors attempted to stem the flow of online rumours that had the country’s hugely popular social media networks buzzing. A series of related search terms on social media, including “back injury” and “vice president”, were blocked, along with Mr Xi’s name. 
 
 But micro-bloggers soon found their way around the censors, using terms such as “crown prince” to escape detection. 
 
 “The rumours about the crown prince are flying everywhere,” wrote one in reference to Mr Xi, whose name had already been blocked. “The Congress is approaching. Come out, crown prince, to calm people down.” 
 
 Questions over the whereabouts of Mr Xi, 59, began last Wednesday after authorities cancelled the vice-president’s meeting with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, citing “unexpected scheduling reasons”. 
 
 Last Friday, Mr Xi was not listed as having attended a high-level meeting of the central military commission, of which he is the vice-chairman. 
 
 On Monday, with Mr Xi still nowhere to be seen, those whispers grew into widespread speculation. A meeting with Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Danish prime minister, which had been announced to media last Wednesday, also appeared to have been axed. 
 
 The Chinese foreign ministry later denied, however, that the meeting had ever been planned. 
 
 Despite the rumours, some of China’s top officials continued to travel outside Beijing, which would seem unlikely if the leadership was consumed with crisis. 
 
 Premier Wen Jiabao gave a speech in the northern port city of Tianjin, and his likely successor, Vice Premier Li Keqiang, was visiting a northwestern region, according to state media reports. 
 
 Analysts have dismissed the most sensational online claims, posted on a US website and subsequently retracted, that Mr Xi had suffered an assassination attempt as part of an internal struggle for power struggle. 
 
 “If that did happen or if the party leadership believed that such an attempt was made I think you would have Beijing crawling with police and security forces,” said Steve Tsang, a China expert from the University of Nottingham. 
 
 “Nobody has seen [that happen] and we are talking about a government that habitually over reacts. So I really don’t buy that.” 
 
 Prof Tsang said the most likely explanation was a medical condition “that makes it impossible to parade him on TV”. 
 
 Hu Xingdou, a professor from the Beijing Institute of Technology who blogs on political and social issues, said Mr Xi’s absence was “quite normal”. 
 
 “He might have some health problems. He might have fallen ill due to overwork. Anyone can get sick. It is normal for a student to take a week off school if they fall in,” he said. 
 
 But Prof Hu criticised a lack of government transparency in handling the case. “Rumours die when you open up,” he said. 
 
 Mr Xi’s withdrawal from public view comes at a crucial time for Chinese politics, with the once-in-a-decade power transition widely expected to take place before the end of October with the opening of the 18th Communist Party Congress. It also follows the messy fallout from the Neil Heywood murder scandal, which toppled Bo Xilai, once one of China’s most powerful men. 
 
 But Prof Tsang said there was “no evidence that Xi Jinping’s succession was in trouble [or] that there are powerful people or groups in the top leadership who are now trying to derail his succession.” ||||| BEIJING China's top leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, who has set off a storm of rumors after not showing up at scheduled public events for more than a week, is nursing an ailment, possibly a back injury suffered while swimming, sources said on Tuesday. 
 
 Xi, who is due to take over the presidency of the world's second-largest economy in March next year, has skipped several meetings with visiting foreign leaders and dignitaries over the past week, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the prime ministers of Singapore and Denmark. 
 
 China's government, however, has declined to spell out what is ailing Xi, 59 - in keeping with decades of official secrecy over the health of senior leaders, a tradition viewed in the West as out of step with a modern state and emerging superpower. 
 
 "Xi injured his back when he went for his daily swim," a source close to the Beijing leadership said after Xi's absence from the public stage was first noticed last week. At that stage, he had failed to keep scheduled meetings with Clinton and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. 
 
 The source declined to give further details on the injury, including exactly when and where the incident took place. 
 
 Another source also said the injury happened when Xi went swimming. "Xi pulled a (back) muscle when he went swimming," the source said. 
 
 A third source, citing people close to Xi, said: "He's unwell, but it's not a big problem." 
 
 All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity. 
 
 The lack of an official explanation has fuelled Internet speculation surrounding Xi's condition, and brought some pointed questions at briefings by China's foreign ministry. 
 
 On Tuesday, the ministry's spokesman Hong Lei was asked whether Xi is in good health. Sticking to his government's usual reticence, Hong said he had no information to give. But he appeared dismissive of any hint that Xi might be in a bad way. 
 
 "I hope you can ask a serious question," Hong said when asked to confirm that Xi was alive. 
 
 SEARCHES BLOCKED 
 
 China's popular Twitter-like microblogging site Sina Weibo blocked searches for Xi's name, as is common with top leaders, but users as usual found ways to skirt the restrictions, referring to Xi as "the crown prince". 
 
 "What's up with the crown prince? He's vanished for the last 10 days or so and the whole world is wondering where he is," wrote one user. 
 
 Despite the panicky rumors, some of China's top officials continued to travel outside Beijing -- not what would be expected if the leadership was consumed with crisis. Premier Wen Jiabao gave a speech in the northern port city of Tianjin, and his likely successor, Vice Premier Li Keqiang, was visiting a northwestern region, according to state media reports. 
 
 Xi had been scheduled to meet visiting Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Monday afternoon for a photo opportunity, according to a media advisory that had been circulated on September 5. But the event did not take place. 
 
 Thorning-Schmidt told Reuters in an interview that a meeting with Xi had never been on her program, which was released on Friday. 
 
 "I think there has been a slight misunderstanding," she said. "I would, of course, very much like to see him (Xi) and I think I will see him at some stage, perhaps on my next visit to China, but he was never in my program which we released on Friday, so there shouldn't be anything new in my not seeing him." 
 
 The foreign ministry's website shows Xi's most recent public appearance was at a ceremony at the ruling Communist Party's Central Party School in Beijing on September 1. 
 
 The rumors about Xi come at a tempestuous time for Chinese politics. The 18th Communist Party Congress, at which China's next top leaders including Xi are likely to be unveiled, is set to take place in October. 
 
 Earlier this year, senior politician Bo Xilai, once seen as a candidate for the top rung of party leadership, was suspended from the Politburo and his wife convicted of murdering a British businessman. The wife, Gu Kailai, was given a suspended death sentence last month. 
 
 In another scandal this month, a senior ally of President Hu Jintao was demoted after sources said the ally's son was involved in a deadly crash involving a luxury sports car. 
 
 China has been engulfed in the past by rumors about senior leaders. 
 
 Last year, the official Xinhua news agency was forced to come out with a one-line statement in English denying former President Jiang Zemin had died, following feverish online speculation and a report from a Hong Kong television station. 
 
 (Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Sui-Lee Wee, Chris Buckley, Don Durfee, Michael Martina and Nick Edwards; Editing by Alex Richardson and Jeremy Laurence) ||||| China’s anointed leader, Xi Jinping, reemerged from the shadows Wednesday as he met with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and smiled for the cameras, quelling speculation about his health and political status. 
 
 Xi is widely expected to be declared China’s new president next month, part of a once-in-a-decade revamping of the senior Communist Party leadership. But his unexplained cancellation of meetings with foreign dignitaries and disappearance from public view in recent weeks had triggered a frenzy of rumor and gossip. 
 
 The 59-year-old Xi offered a firm, prolonged handshake to Panetta in front of Western and Chinese journalists assembled inside an ornate reception room in the Great Hall of the People.The two leaders exchanged pleasantries for about five minutes before the media was ushered away. 
 
 “It is a great pleasure for me to meet you again, Secretary Panetta, and to welcome you to China,” Xi said in Chinese, appearing comfortable and at ease as he paced across the room in a dark suit and a light-blue tie. 
 
 “It’s an honor to have the opportunity to visit with you here,” Panetta, 74, replied with a broad smile. “I appreciate all of your support in encouraging better military-to-military relations between our two countries.” 
 
 U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (L) shakes hands with China's Vice President Xi Jinping before meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Sept. 19, 2012. (Larry Downing/Reuters) 
 
 Xi was supposed to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this month but was a no-show; he also canceled meetings with three other foreign leaders. The Chinese government offered no official explanation for his withdrawal from the limelight. 
 
 U.S. diplomats said they were told privately by Chinese officials that Xi was hampered by a bad back. 
 
 Other rumors included speculation that Xi had suffered a heart attack, hurt himself playing sports or been the target of an assassination attempt. 
 
 On Saturday, Xi suddenly reappeared in public when he toured a Chinese university campus, looking very much alive and light on his feet.The visit was brief, however, and the state-run media distributed only two photographs of the event. 
 
 His meeting with Panetta was the first time in nearly three weeks that he had showed up for a scheduled, public event with journalists present. 
 
 Panetta is in the midst of a three-day visit to China, the first since he became defense secretary in July 2011.In February, Panetta hosted Xi on a visit to the Pentagon, replete with an honor guard. So failing to return the favor with a meeting in Beijing would have only fueled more questions about Xi’s condition. 
 
 The son of a revolutionary leader, Xi is being groomed to take over as China’s president from Hu Jintao as part of a broader reorganization of the Politburo Standing Committee, which runs the country. 
 
 Although China has sought to project an image of stability and order during the leadership transition, that script has been undermined by intra-party feuding, including a murder-and-corruption scandal involving another Politburo member, Bo Xilai. ||||| Mr. Xi was designated internally as the presumptive heir to Mr. Hu as the leader of the Communist Party, head of state and chairman of the top military oversight body in 2007, a full five years before he was expected to assume those posts. Party bosses have tried to name future leaders well in advance to prevent destabilizing jockeying for power. Smooth transitions are considered by many Chinese as a crucial test of the Communist Party’s longevity, and its leaders are eager to make the case that their authoritarian system can manage China better than a multiparty democracy could. 
 
 Analysts who follow Chinese politics say the transition is still likely to happen roughly along the planned lines. They also say that the core leadership team around Mr. Xi is slowly taking shape, with the lineup of the Standing Committee coming into focus as the congress draws near. 
 
 But at the very least, the atmospherics are turning out to be far messier than envisioned, with officials stumbling to maintain their usual careful choreography. 
 
 Last Wednesday, after Mr. Xi did not meet Mrs. Clinton and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore , diplomats said privately that he had a bad back. 
 
 On Monday, the situation got odder. Foreign journalists had been invited to a photo opportunity between Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt of Denmark. On Monday, however, the Foreign Ministry denied that any such meeting had been scheduled and said other Chinese officials would meet the Danish leader. 
 
 “We have told everybody everything,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei. 
 
 While Chinese leaders often do not appear in public for long periods, canceling meetings with foreign dignitaries at the last minute is highly unusual. Adding to the uncertainty is the lack of an official statement of any kind, with observers speculating about car crashes and heart attacks. 
 
 “There’s every sort of crazy rumor about Xi’s health,” said a senior Chinese journalist, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity surrounding the case. “But no one is saying anything.” 
 
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 Mr. Xi’s absence comes during a year when the Chinese political system has suffered serious blows. 
 
 This spring, the senior leader Bo Xilai vanished from view, and soon after, his wife was charged with murdering a British businessman. She was eventually tried and convicted over the summer, and his police chief, Wang Lijun, who has been accused of covering up the murder and other crimes, could face trial soon. 
 
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 The scandal threatened to upset the complex political calculations that underlie the transition because Mr. Bo was popular among an influential wing of reform skeptics, many of whom condemn the country’s widening wealth gap. So even though Mr. Bo’s own case still has not been handled, sorting out his wife and closest associates was seen as an important step to get the transition back on track, implying that senior leaders were united on how to deal with Mr. Bo. 
 
 But no sooner had these problems been cleared than one of Mr. Hu’s closest allies was sidelined in unusual circumstances. 
 
 The ally, Ling Jihua, had headed the party’s General Office, a position similar to chief of staff. He was expected to be replaced so that Mr. Xi could bring in his own man, but he departed the position unusually early for a job that many saw as a demotion. 
 
 Some sources say it was because of a car crash earlier this year involving a Ferrari: his son was at the wheel and died, and two female companions were seriously injured. The episode exposed the fabulous wealth and extravagant lifestyles that some leaders’ family members acquire. 
 
 Adding to the uncertainty is that no date has been set for the party congress. Political experts expected the date to be set by now, contributing to speculation that the final lineup of the new leadership remains unsettled. 
 
 Party congresses are held every five years, generally in October. In 2007, the year of the previous congress, the October date had been announced by August. 
 
 “These are not signs that everything is going well,” said Bo Zhiyue, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore. “Negotiations seem to be going on.” 
 
 China’s political system has long been a black box, but its all-encompassing secrecy has begun to seem anachronistic as the country has become one of the world’s biggest economic, political and military powers. 
 
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 “Authorities are worried about anything that may tarnish the transition,” said Joseph Y. S. Cheng, a political science professor at the City University of Hong Kong . “But this concern is working against their interests; they should come out with a clear statement” about Mr. Xi’s whereabouts. 
 
 Mr. Xi could appear publicly at any time and quash the speculation about his status. But for now rumors are replacing real information, with one of the most common being that he hurt his back playing sports. Popular Internet search sites have aggressively removed references to Mr. Xi and have even blocked searches for “back injury.” 
 
 One well-connected political analyst in Beijing said that Mr. Xi had suffered a mild heart attack but that it was not serious enough to prevent him from assuming China’s top positions. 
 
 “They say it won’t affect the party meeting,” the analyst said. 
 
 As if to assuage worries about Mr. Xi’s health, a newspaper on Monday ran a picture of Mr. Xi addressing students at the opening of the fall semester of the Central Party School. The photo and speech, however, were from Sept. 1, the last confirmed date of Mr. Xi’s being seen in public.
– The global rumor mill is swirling around the sudden conspicuous absence of Xi Jinping, who is scheduled to ascend to China's presidency in a matter of weeks. Xi hasn't been seen in public in 10 days, according to the Telegraph, and last week he took the unheard of step of canceling three meetings with top foreign officials, including Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, officials turned journalists away from a planned photo-op between Xi and Denmark's prime minister, denying it had ever been scheduled. Officials tell Reuters Xi hurt his back while swimming, but speculation of worse is rampant. One source tells the New York Times that Xi may have suffered a mild heart attack, and an earlier report, since retracted, alleged that a military official tried to assassinate him, and wound up injuring him in a car accident. Amid the speculation, China has blocked all Internet searches for his name, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Something is amiss," a Brookings Institute member says. "Otherwise, they would have found an opportunity for him to be seen.