Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed life-prolonging organ transplants and immortality as they chatted before Beijing’s military parade this week, in comments picked up by state media microphones.
Images showed Xi shaking hands and speaking with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as they walked down a red carpet by Tiananmen Square.
“These days ... 70 years old,” Xi said in Mandarin as he walked beside Putin and Kim, footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS
Xi’s translator, conveying his remarks to Putin, is then heard in Russian quoting a line from a Tang Dynasty poem: “In the past, it used to be rare for someone to be older than 70 and these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child.”
Putin then turned toward Xi, speaking while gesturing with his hands, though his words are inaudible on the CCTV feed.
The same Chinese translator relayed Putin’s remarks to Xi.
Photo: Reuters
“With the ... development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, people could get younger as they grow older, and might even become immortal,” Putin said, according to the translator.
Xi spoke again in Mandarin as the camera cut away: “Predictions are, in this century, it might be ... possible to live to 150 years old.”
Putin confirmed the exchange during a news conference on Wednesday.
“Ah, I think it was when we were going to the parade that the Chairman spoke about this,” he told reporters, referring to Xi.
“Modern means — both health improvement and medical means, and then even all kinds of surgical ones related to organ replacement — allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today,” Putin added.
The Chinese and Russian leaders are both 72.
Meanwhile, North Korean staff were seen carefully wiping off items touched by Kim after his time in Beijing, in what analysts say is part of a suite of security measures to counter foreign spies.
Footage on Wednesday showed the extraordinary measures staff took to conceal any clues about Kim’s health.
In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared video of two staff members meticulously cleaning the room in the Chinese capital where Kim and Putin met for more than two hours.
The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed, and a coffee table next to Kim’s chair was also cleaned. Kim’s drinking glass was also removed.
“After the negotiations were over, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,” the reporter said, referring to North Korea.
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