'Conspicuous Absence' of Xi's Daughter in China's Media

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Barbara Demnick, China Sees Obama Girls, but Not Xi's Daughter. Los Angeles Times, Mar 21, 2014.
www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/l ... i-daughter-20140321,0,3016894.story

Quote:

(a) "Xi’s daughter, Xi Mingze, never appears in public. The 21-year-old is believed to be a student at Harvard University, enrolled under a pseudonym. That has never been mentioned in the Chinese press and searches of her name on the Chinese Internet are blocked.

"The most recent photo of her available was from when she was about 10. The only other confirmed photograph, released last year by Chinese state media, shows her riding on the back of her father’s bicycle when she was about 5.

(b) "There had been speculation in the Chinese press that Xi’s daughter might attend a family dinner Friday night at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. She [daughter] was a no-show, although Xi attended to greet Michelle Obama, a gesture beyond the usual protocol since she was traveling without the president.

(c) "In one of the few articles about her, published by the official New China News Agency last April, Xi Mingze was referred to as a graduate of Hangzhou Foreign Language School in Zhejiang province who had 'entered Zhejiang University' in 2009.

"The article made no reference to her transfer to Harvard in 2010. The photograph accompanying the story showed the young Xi [ie, daughter] walking beside her grandfather, who was in a wheelchair. The photo was undated, but since the grandfather died in 2002, it had to have been taken when Xi Mingze was no more than 10.