When the star of the personality cult goes missing, CCTV gets interesting

Xi Jinping has not appeared on prime time TV news in more than two weeks and while it has some people worried, his people most of all, it certainly makes for a refreshing change of tone and content.

At the time of writing, China’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, so regular a fixture on the news that he IS the news, hasn’t been seen in public for over two weeks. When he deigns to reappear, probably soon, it will be in all his glory, his personality cult jump-started and re-personified, but for now he’s neither here nor there; he’s in the ether.

That’s not to say it’s a cause for alarm, though tongues will wag. There’s the timing for one. Torrential floods hit, and he’s suddenly nowhere to be seen. Other Chinese communist leaders made the point of visiting disaster zones, if only for PR purposes, but not so with Xi. Is he sick? Has he had a breakdown? Or is he spooked out by the floods, seeking to disassociate from the inauspicious mandate of heaven’s apparent wrath?

Maybe it’s political. Does withdrawal to the bunker have anything to do with the murky goings-on in the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force — a reported suicide, two top generals sacked and replaced with loyal outsiders,…