Online speculation about Xi Jinping’s health surged this week after claims circulated that the Chinese president became unwell during a major summit and was forced to return home early.
The rumours gained traction after footage appeared to show Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi interrupting his remarks to ask about the condition of his Chinese counterpart.
In the widely shared video, Modi pauses his opening address at Saturday’s BRICS summit and looks towards Xi after what appears to be a disturbance near the Chinese delegation.
“Is it okay?” Modi can be heard asking the translator beside Xi several times, while people believed to be aides or event staff move towards the Chinese leader.
Speculation intensified when Xi did not attend the BRICS leaders’ gala dinner hosted by Modi later that day. Russian President Vladimir Putin was among those present at the event.
However, the exchange was reportedly unrelated to any medical emergency. Instead, Xi’s interpretation earpiece was not functioning, preventing him from hearing the translator clearly.
The episode nevertheless revived longstanding rumours about Xi’s health. Over the years, unverified claims have suggested that he suffered a heart attack, was diagnosed with cancer or experienced a stroke.
Speculation was particularly intense in 2012, when Xi disappeared from public view for about two weeks while serving as China’s vice-president. His absence prompted theories that he may have survived an assassination attempt.
The video appears to show Modi pausing his speech and looking towards Xi
Several people believed to be aides or staff members move towards Xi before exchanging a few words with him
The latest claims about Xi’s supposed illness were amplified online by Wanjun Xie, chairman of the China Democratic Party, an outlawed opposition movement established by Chinese dissidents.
Xie, who previously took part in student protests, wrote a lengthy post in Chinese on X claiming that Xi became ill during the summit’s opening ceremony and was taken away for emergency first aid.
He further alleged that the Chinese president was flown back to China immediately, bringing his India visit to an early end because of the alleged medical crisis.
The post attracted around 2.3 million views and was rapidly reposted across social media platforms.
Xie also claimed Xi had been walking with difficulty as he departed the summit.
“All of this suggests that Xi Jinping is already an elderly man, and that his regime is a dying regime,” he wrote.
Anti-China activists and commentators soon echoed the claims. Lawyer Gordon G. Chang wrote: “Xi Jinping is not well. This time, China could not hide his condition.”
Since Monday, Xie has continued publishing posts alleging that Xi fell ill in India and returned to China ahead of schedule.
Those claims came despite photographs showing Xi attending events in India on both the first and second days of the summit.
Footage also showed Xi walking up the aircraft steps before his flight back to China without visible assistance or difficulty.
While the rumours about his ill health are often promptly disproved, online speculation about Xi still runs rampant.
In July 2024, a photo of the Chinese leader supposedly wincing in pain went viral on social media, with people claiming that he had suffered a stroke.
It turned out the image was taken from four months before, and the Chinese president was merely reacting to something he had drunk while at the National People’s Congress.
In July 2024, a photo of Xi supposedly wincing in pain went viral on social media, with people claiming that he had suffered a stroke
It turned out the image was taken from four months before and the Chinese president was merely reacting to something he had drunk while at the National People’s Congress
In September 2025, a hot mic caught Putin discussing immortality during a summit with Xi and Kim Jong Un in Beijing, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The pair were heard chatting about the possibility of achieving immortality with organ transplants and advanced medical procedures.
Xi told Putin via a translator: ‘Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 you are still a child’.
Putin responded: ‘Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and (you can) even achieve immortality’.
Xi said in response: ‘Predictions are, this century, there is also a chance of living to 150’.
The eerie conversation came in the context of the long-standing allegations of China illegally harvesting organs from minority groups detained across the nation, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians.
UN human rights experts said in 2021 they had credible information that minority groups were forced to undergo medical tests and organ harvesting without their consent.
Even before Xi became president, his health was a popular topic of speculation in the country, particularly among critics of the communist regime.
This is despite the fact that the high level of internet censorship in China means that anything deemed a criticism of Xi or the Chinese Communist Party is blocked or immediately removed.
In September 2012, just a few months before Xi took over as head of the party and became president, scrutiny about his ill health was rampant after he mysteriously wasn’t seen in public for two weeks.
He cancelled several high level international meetings, leading detractors to claim he ‘wasn’t fit to govern’.
Even before Xi became president, his health was a popular topic of speculation in the country among critics of the communist regime
Xi had allegedly sustained a back injury while swimming, and a doctor had ordered him to get bed rest and undergo physiotherapy.
Leaders’ health is typically considered a state secret in China.
But the refusal of official media to say what had happened to Xi fueled theories that he may have had a heart attack, a stroke, undergone emergency cancer surgery or even been the subject of an attempted assassination.
Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based analyst, commented at the time that ‘the conspicuous disappearance of China’s incoming leader has become an international topic, and a potentially destabilising factor for the imminent party reshuffle’.
His unexplained ‘disappearance’ and the absence of an official statement also prompted speculation of a power struggle within the Communist party.
