Tagged: Xi Jinping

China is inching toward anointing a new party leader later this week: Xi Jinping, the current vice-president.

In that role, he's visited forty-one countries, traveling more widely than any other Chinese leader-to-be. And in all his globetrotting, he's kept a soft spot for the small town of Muscatine, Iowa.

Xi returned to Muscatine this February, twenty-seven years after his first visit, when he was a young government official.

Two days after the U.S. election, another major political development is unfolding on the other side of the world. China began its once-in-a-decade transition of power on Thursday with the opening of its 18th Communist Party Congress.

With its lack of personalities or political platforms, it is almost diametrically opposed to the hurly-burly of U.S. elections. In Beijing, the message was about fighting corruption and keeping the Communist Party in power.

Twelve days is a long time to go without a mention — at least if you're China's president-in-waiting.

Xi Jinping, 59, the man tapped to succeed President Hu Jintao next month, hasn't been seen or heard from since Sept. 1, prompting intense speculation in the foreign media, among China watchers and in blogs, tweets and forums, as we reported earlier.