Xi Jinping’s Tibet Visit Fuels Speculation Over Power Dynamics

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During Xi’s two-day trip to Lhasa, the Chinese leader appeared silent, frail, and overshadowed by Wang Huning.

By TRH Global Affairs Desk

NEW DELHI, August 24, 2025 — When Xi Jinping made his rare two-day trip to Tibet earlier this week, Beijing projected it as a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Yet, as China observer Frank Lehberger argues, the visit was filled with “bizarre anomalies” that raise deeper questions about Xi’s health and political standing.

Unlike the 50th anniversary in 2015—when Xi skipped Lhasa and sent a Politburo representative—this time Xi himself attended as the guest of honour. However, he was not designated the official delegation leader. That role was handed to Wang Huning, the CCP’s top ideologue and United Front pointman for Tibet.

“The symbolism was hard to miss: Xi sat silently as Wang delivered speeches, with the Chinese leader never once addressing crowds or cadres,” wrote Lehberger in a post on LinkedIn. He argued that this uncharacteristic muteness was telling.

“His visit may have been designed to quell rumours of his hospitalization,” Lehberger wrote, “but his inability to speak in Lhasa only reinforced speculation that Xi was physically incapable of delivering speeches in Tibet’s high-altitude, low-oxygen environment.”

Xi’s gait added to the intrigue. Video clips from Chinese state media showed him walking haltingly, even wobbling at times, and descending the aircraft steps with visible difficulty. State TV appeared to deliberately cut away from prolonged shots of Xi, breaking with its rigid tradition of keeping the supreme leader in frame.

These carefully edited visuals, combined with his silence, suggest that Xi’s carefully choreographed display of strength in Lhasa may have backfired. Instead of projecting authority, the trip has intensified speculation over his health, stamina, and even the balance of power inside the CCP.

For Tibetans, the spectacle was also a reminder of Beijing’s colonial control over the region. Xi’s presence in Lhasa was framed as a moment of “national unity,” but the subtext was unmistakable: a fragile leader presiding over an increasingly brittle narrative of Chinese dominance.

As Lehberger puts it, “The anomalies of Xi’s visit are not isolated—they are signs of the things to come.”

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