Zhang Gaoli, former Vice Premier of China, attended the 20th Communist Party Congress, his first public outing since tennis player Peng Shuai accused him of sexual assault in 2021.
Zhang was one of several influential leaders, including Hu Jintao, Xi's immediate predecessor, who joined the party general secretary on stage in a conventional display of unity at the start of a week-long meeting that was anticipated to extend Xi's rule for a third term and solidify his status as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
Behind President Xi Jinping and other current and former leaders, Zhang, 75, entered the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and took a seat in the front row of the platform for the start of the twice-yearly gathering.
Last year, Peng accused Zhang of forcing her to have sex with him in a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. This is the first time a top political figure in China has been the target of such an accusation. Zhang has not addressed her allegations.
Since then, the article has been removed from China's internet. Searches for Ms. Peng, a former tennis doubles player who was rated first, also seem to have been limited.
"I know that someone of your eminence, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, you'll say that you're not afraid," Peng wrote, "but even if it's just striking a stone with a pebble, or a moth attacking a flame and courting self-destruction, I will tell the truth about you."
Her post sparked a worldwide outcry over her safety and resulted in the Women's Tennis Association suspending competitions in China.
Premier Li Keqiang's predecessor, Wen Jiabao, was also present. Hu, 79, walked onto the platform just following Xi, appearing slightly unsteady but otherwise healthy. Hu took a seat next to Xi. On the podium were several retired leaders, including Jia Qinglin and Zeng Qinghong, who had formerly served on the party's ruling Standing Committee, an elite body that controls China. Hu's predecessor Jiang Zemin, who was 96, did not make an appearance.
The People's Republic of China's founder Mao and the reformer Deng Xiaoping were among the leaders who were remembered during a minute of silence before Xi's nearly two-hour speech to the congress. Deng Pufang, the elder son of Deng who uses a wheelchair, was also there and was seated in the audience on the main stage. He mysteriously fell from a building at Peking University in 1968, at the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
