When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Geopolitics

Speculation Runs Rampant After China's Heir Apparent Goes MIA

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, RADIO AUSTRALIA (Australia), CNN, WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA), REUTERS

Worldcrunch

BEIJING - Xi Jinping, the 58-year-old Chinese Vice President, widely expected to be the next leader of the People's Republic of China, has not been seen in public since September 1.

Several meetings planned with foreign leaders have been canceled, reports Reuters in Beijing, including one with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and another with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong.

No explanation for these cancelations has been given, according to Radio Australia. Xi is expected to be appointed China’s new leader at the Communist party Congress next month, before assuming the presidency early next year in a once-in-a-decade power transition.

Xi remains nowhere to be seen, which has fueled rumors and gossip. Despite the Chinese censors' best efforts to ban discussion on the subject, theories have proliferated on China's ever active social networks, with wild plot lines ranging from a car crash to an assassination attempt, reports CNN.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has refused to answer any questions about Xi but sources close to the leadership said on Tuesday that he has hurt his back swimming. Another source close to Xi said: “He’s unwell, but it’s not a big problem.”

When asked in a press conference if Xi was dead, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei answered, "I hope you have serious questions to ask."

China's official silence on the absence of the Vice President is in line with past policy, but because of recent scandals involving high-level officials and their families, China-watchers are on the alert for anything out of the ordinary involving them. Just last week, for example, it was confirmed that web rumors about the Ferrari crash of the son of a top political adviser in March were in fact true: the son of President Hu Jintao’s chief political fixer, Ling Jihua was killed in a high-speed Ferrari accident reportedly involving two naked women, writes the Sydney Morning Herald.

As it is often the case with China’s top leaders, Chinese and English language searches for Mr Xi’s full name and surname were blocked on Weibo on Monday. But searches for “Jinping” weren't blocked in Chinese, though periodic searches using those characters produced fewer results each time, suggesting censors were busy deleting posts about Mr Xi, says the Wall Street Journal.

In my hotel room Chinese censors blocked BBC just as they began to cover the missing Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping.

— Scott Gilmore (@Scott_Gilmore) September 11, 2012

Posted link to WSJ story about Xi Jinping on Weibo. Blocked from public view within 10 minutes.

— Josh Chin (@joshchin) September 11, 2012

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Society

The Diary Of Anne Frank Made Inclusive For People With Cognitive Difficulties

An Easy Reading adaptation of Anne Frank’s legendaryThe Diary of a Young Girl has been created by the The Anne Frank Center in Argentina, a branch of the Anne Frank House in the Netherlands. Made in association with Visibilia Publishing and the Eudeba Foundation, the adaptation is tailored to people with cognitive difficulties.

Image of Argentina’s Anne Frank Center's first-ever Easy Reading edition, in Spanish., a book with a blue cover with  Anne Frank's  face

Argentina’s Anne Frank Center's first-ever Easy Reading edition, in Spanish.

Guadalupe Rivero

BUENOS AIRES The Diary of Anne Frank was first published on June 25, 1947 as Het Achterhuis (The Annex) in Dutch, selling a modest 3 million copies.

The work is unique for several reasons: its literary style, its significance as a historical document, and the fact that teenagers from all walks of life can identify with it.

To that end, it has already been translated into more than 70 languages. Now, 76 years after it was first published, Argentina’s Anne Frank Center has launched a first-ever Easy Reading edition, in Spanish.

This version of "El Diario de Ana Frank" was written in collaboration with people with intellectual and learning disabilities. Easy Reading is a support technique that helps readers better understand a book through adapted text, images and formatting.

Héctor Shalom, director of the Anne Frank Center in Argentina, explained to Clarín that the goal was to make the world's most famous diary accessible while remaining loyal to the source material.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest