Pass notes No 3,246: back injury  Xi Jinping, tipped to be the
next president of China, has not been seen in public for a
while. Rather than explain his absence, the authorities have
banned a certain search term from a social media site Xi Jinping
Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping – missing in action.
Photograph: Li Tao/AP  Age: Roughly half a billion years,
assuming it's as old as the spine.  Appearance: Painful.
Something to do with the Paralympics? Guess again.  Then it must
be poor old Man United. No sooner have they paid £12m for their
new midfielder than Shinji Kagawa strains a muscle, leaving it
unclear whether he'll be able to play against Wigan and
Galatasaray. It couldn't happen to a nicer team … That neither.
We are in fact talking about Asian politics.  Well you might be
… You know Xi Jinping, the Communist bigwig who is tipped to
replace Hu Jintao as Chinese president?  Of course not. He
hasn't been seen in public for a week and a half, during which
time he has failed to meet not just Hillary Cl