Mysterious micro-blogger prompts speculation

Updated: 2013-02-05 17:17

By AN BAIJIE (chinadaily.com.cn)

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The identity of the netizen behind a micro blog that documents the movements of the Party's top leader Xi Jinping, including many photos of Xi taken at a short distance, has become the subject of wide public speculation.

Mysterious micro-blogger prompts speculation

 
A screenshot of the home page of the netizen "the learning fan group". 

The mysterious micro blog account, named "the learning fan group" (with a similar pronunciation to "fans of group learning of Xi" in Chinese), refers to China's Party chief as "Xi Dada" meaning Uncle Xi, and his wife Peng Liyuan as "Peng Mama" meaning Mum Peng.

The micro blog uploaded photos of Xi's recent trips, which had not been published through State media. Lots of the photos were taken a short distance from Xi.

Some of the photos were taken in an office, one depicted Xi reading a newspaper, in another Xi and another man are reading a computer screen.

The micro blog also broadcast Xi's activities, some of which had not been covered by State news media.

"The fleet has started the trip, without knowing the destination," it said in an entry at 9:46 am on Tuesday.

"General Xi has been back to the hotel," it said about an hour later.

Many netizens have speculated that Xi's secretaries are behind the micro blog. But the micro-blogger claimed that he is just a common, grassroots person.

On Monday, the micro blog stated that Xi will open a real name account, but the post was later deleted.

The micro blog had attracted more than 118,000 followers as of 11:15 am on Tuesday morning.

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