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Hu,
79, Xi Jinping's immediate predecessor, was seated to the left
of Xi. He was led off the stage of the main auditorium of the
Great Hall of the People in Beijing by two stewards, a Reuters
witness at the congress said.
Video footage published by AFP showed a steward repeatedly
trying to lift Hu from his seat, drawing concerned looks from
officials seated nearby. Hu then put his hand on a sheet of
paper placed on Xi's folder but Xi quickly put his hand on the
sheet.
China's top legislator Li Zhanshu, seated to Hu's right, gave
the former president's folder to a steward, wiping his own head
with a cloth after Hu finally stood up.
Looking distressed, Hu appeared to resist leaving as the
stewards escorted him out, turning back to his seat at one
point. On his way out, he exchanged words with Xi and patted
Premier Li Keqiang, seated to the right of Xi, on the shoulder.
Video of the incident, highly unusual given the meticulous stage
management of most such events, was widely shared on Twitter but
could not be found on China's heavily censored social media
platforms.
On China's Twitter-like Weibo, a few social media users alluded
to the incident by commenting on old posts featuring Hu, a
common tactic used to evade cyberspace censors.
By Saturday evening, however, the comments section of almost all
Weibo posts containing Hu's name were no longer visible,
according to a Reuters review.
State media coverage of the ceremony did not include the scene,
which occurred as journalists were entering the hall.
Hu had appeared slightly unsteady last Sunday when he was
assisted onto the same stage for the opening ceremony of the
congress.
The once-in-five-years congress concluded with amendments to the
party's constitution that cements the core status of Xi and the
guiding role of his political thought within the party.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Ryan Woo; Editing by Lincoln
Feast, William Mallard and Edmund Blair)
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