China: What's behind the disappearance of more and more top Chinese officials? | DW News

Senior leaders from Japan, China, and South Korea met in Seoul for a rare trilateral.

The last time a similar meeting took place was before the pandemic, in 2019. The South Korean Foreign Minister, Park Jin, took the opportunity to say that peace and stability in Northeast Asia is critical, given that that three countries collectively account for 20 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of global GDP.

Park expressed hope in a follow-up trilateral soon, at the highest level.

You wouldn't know judging from appearances at the trilateral summit that there is trouble brewing back home. But it’s been a challenging year for job security in China’s political elite. More and more top Chinese officials are being ensnared in Xi Jinping's move to focus power around himself, and disappearing from sight. What's behind it all - and does this help or hurt Xi's grip on power?

For more on this, we are joined in the studio by DW’s Asia analyst, Clifford Coonan.

#china #xijinping #politics

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