Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the northeastern province of Liaoning on Tuesday, state media reported, as the president and other Chinese leaders resume public activity after an absence of two weeks, during which they are likely to have been meeting in their annual summer conclave.
Xi visited a museum in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, commemorating a key 1948 battle, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
Prior to Wednesday, state media had not reported on Xi’s activities for two weeks – his activities are normally covered almost daily – indicating that he and other senior leaders had held their traditional secret summer meeting in the Beidaihe resort, east of Beijing.
Beidaihe visitors and residents have said security has been especially tight in recent weeks.
This year’s Beidaihe conclave would be especially important as leaders are expected to have deliberated on personnel movements ahead of the ruling Communist Party’s once-every-five-year congress later this year.
Xi is expected to win an unprecedented third five-year term at the next party congress.
Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang also reappeared this week after fifteen days of absence from public activity. He visited the southern city of Shenzhen and held a video conference on the economy with leaders from some of China’s largest provinces on Tuesday.
During his stay in Jinzhou, Xi also inspected the local government’s efforts to prevent flooding and interacted with people relaxing in a park, Xinhua reported.
The museum visited by Xi commemorates the battle that allowed Mao Zedong’s communists to seize control of northeast China from the nationalists, or Kuomintang, who fled to Taiwan after their defeat in 1949.
China continues to claim Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims over it.
