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China’s Communist Party
ChinaPolitics

China’s top officials gather in Beidaihe, signalling start of summer break for leaders

  • Cai Qi, chief of staff to Chinese President Xi Jinping, gives speech in seaside resort east of Beijing, according to state media
  • Xi and other top leaders absent from public view in clear sign they have kicked off their annual retreat

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Security is tight near Beidaihe, the seaside town where Chinese leaders have gathered since Chairman Mao Zedong set up a “summer office” there in the 1950s. Photo: Simon Song
Xinlu Liang
The ideology chief of China’s Communist Party met the country’s leading academics at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, signalling the start of the summer break for Chinese leaders.
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Cai Qi, President Xi Jinping’s chief of staff and the party’s No 5 official, passed on greetings from Xi to 57 top researchers, scientists and experts on Thursday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Cai was joined by the party’s personnel chief Li Ganjie and culture and education regulator Shen Yiqin, who is a state councillor and ranks above ministers.

The reception came as Xi and other senior Politburo members stepped out of the spotlight for a few days. State broadcaster CCTV has continued to report on their directives or calls with foreign leaders in daily news bulletins, but it offered no hints about the leaders’ whereabouts.

Xi was last seen in public on Monday, when he hosted an annual promotion ceremony in Beijing for generals ahead of the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army on Tuesday.
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Their absence from public view is a clear sign that China’s top leaders have kicked off their annual summer break, which usually lasts about 10 days. Most have probably escaped Beijing’s sweltering heat by retreating to the beaches of Beidaihe, a coastal resort on Bohai Bay, about 300km (186 miles) east of the capital city.
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