Why is everyone talking about Hu Jintao, China’s former president?

One, because it was extraordinary and unexpected.

This happened after the media had been allowed to enter, and virtually every pair of eyes and almost every camera in the Great Hall of the People was trained on the podium where President Xi was sitting, with Hu to his left. It seemed very likely that the intention was to ask Hu to leave the stage in full public view.

And why is Hu that important?

That’s the second reason why this event is a big deal — because of who Hu is.

The CCP is riven by factionalism, and President Xi has been ruthless in crushing all opposition to himself and his group in the relentless effort to concentrate all power in his hands. Hu is the leader of the group called “tuanpai” or populists, comprising members with a Communist Youth League background.

Ever since Xi came to power, his group of “princelings”, or the children of the revolutionaries, have systematically marginalised the other groups in the Party — the tuanpai, as well as the “Shanghai Gang”, which is led by Jiang Zemin (who preceded Hu as president and Party general secretary), and Zheng Qinghong (who was Xi Jinping’s predecessor as first secretary of the CCP central secretariat).

Hours after Hu was led out of the Great Hall, two other senior leaders of the tuanpai group, Premier Li Keqiang, and Wang Yang, who heads the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, were dropped from the CCP central committee.

But haven’t the Chinese said anything officially?

That would be the third reason this is an important development — because several hours after the incident, no reasons have been provided.

While this is not unusual in China, it is still odd — especially because initial speculation that Hu might have taken ill (he is 79, and was looking rather pale) started to fade away after closer shots of his being escorted out by marshals appeared to show that he was resisting, and was clearly reluctant to leave.

He finally went off the stage, led along by the arm by a marshal — and before leaving, he said something to Xi who nodded, and also to his protege Li, tapping him on the shoulder.

That said, it is, of course, still possible that Hu did indeed take ill or had to be taken away due to some other emergency — but we will have to wait for an official Chinese statement to that effect.