How China's President Xi Jinping has been dogged by health rumours from heart attack, cancer and stroke speculation to 'mystery disappearance'

Social media was on fire with speculation this week about the health status of Xi Jinping, with rumours swirling he fell ill at a major summit and had to be rushed home.The conspiracy theories spread after a video appeared to show Indian PM Narendra Modi pause a speech to check on the wellbeing of his Chinese counterpart.The viral footage shows Modi stopping his opening speech at the BRICS summit on Saturday, and turning towards Xi, after a commotion appeared to catch his attention.'Is it okay?' Modi repeatedly asks the translator accompanying the Chinese leader, as several people appearing to be aides or members of staff are seen rushing towards him.Later in the day, Xi skipped the gala dinner hosted by Modi for leaders of the BRICS nations - where ally Vladimir Putin was also in attendance - spurring commentary about his ill health.It turns out the exchange at the summit wasn't because Xi was ill, but rather because his earpiece, through which he could hear his translator, was not working.But this is not the first time the Chinese leader has been dogged by health rumours, with many speculating over the years that he has suffered a heart attack, been diagnosed with cancer, and survived a stroke.Theories previously reached a peak in 2012, after Xi mysteriously disappeared for two weeks when he was still the country's vice-president - fuelling rumours that he had potentially been the subject of an attempted assassination. The footage shows Modi stopping mid-speech and turning towards Xi Several people appearing to be aides or members of staff are seen rushing towards him before exchanging a few brief words with the presidentThe recent rumours about Xi's ill health were encouraged online by Wanjun Xie, the chairman of the China Democratic Party – an outlawed opposition party that dissidents founded.Xie, a former student protester, published a lengthy post on X in Chinese in which he claimed that the Chinese president fell ill during the opening ceremony of the summit and was immediately removed from the venue to have first aid administered. He added that Xi was promptly flown back to China, cutting his visit short due to the medical emergency.The original tweet received 2.3 million views and was widely circulated online.He claimed Xi 'walked with difficulty' when leaving the summit.'All of this suggests that Xi Jinping is already an elderly man, and that his regime is a dying regime,' he added.Anti-China activists and commentators quickly took to the internet to share their views on the matter, with lawyer Gordon G. Chang saying: 'Xi Jinping is not well. This time, China could not hide his condition.'Since Monday, Xie has posted multiple more times alleging that the Chinese leader fell ill while in India and returned to China early.This is despite photographs of Xi in India through the first and second day.He has also seen walking up the steps to board his aircraft back to China with no issue or assistance. 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 CongressIn 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 regimeXi 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.