HONG KONG — What do autocratic leaders talk about when they get together? Maybe how to live forever.
The exchange between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was caught on a hot mic Wednesday as the duo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in their first joint public appearance, led a delegation of 27 world leaders attending a massive military parade in Beijing.
State-run broadcaster CCTV was livestreaming the event, which marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and providing the feed to other media organizations.
As they ascended the rostrum at Tiananmen Square to watch the parade, Putin and Xi, who are both 72, appeared to be discussing the world’s strides in life expectancy.
While it used to be rare for people to reach age 70, “now they say that at 70 you are only a child,” a translator for Xi can be heard telling Putin in Russian.
With advances in biotechnology, people will be able to “transplant human organs continuously, grow younger with age and perhaps even achieve immortality,” Putin’s translator responds in Mandarin.
Xi, who at that point was off-camera, can then be heard saying, “Some have predicted that by the end of this century, humans could potentially live up to 150 years.”
It was unclear whether the conversation was also being translated for Kim, believed to be 41, who was smiling and looking toward the older leaders.
Though they may have just been making conversation, the exchange holds extra weight because both Putin and Xi have indicated an interest in staying in office as long as possible.
Xi, who has been president since 2013, was awarded a rare third term in 2023 after he removed the two-term limit from the constitution five years earlier, breaking with China’s long-standing tradition of changing leaders every decade. In another departure from historical practice, he has not given any sign of who his successor might be.
Putin, who has been president or prime minister of Russia since 2000, won a controversial referendum in 2020 that amended the constitution to allow him to potentially stay in power until 2036. At that point, he would be 83 and Russia’s longest-serving ruler since Peter the Great.
Putin is known for his long-standing interest in longevity, and last year Russian lawmakers established an anti-aging research center called “New Health Preservation Technologies” after Putin said the nation should focus on preserving the health of its citizens.
Though Xi does not appear to have the same fixation, Chinese leaders tend to enjoy long lives, with Deng Xiaoping living until 92 and his successor, Jiang Zemin, making it to 96.
Organ transplants are a sensitive subject in China, where rights groups say organs may still be harvested from executed prisoners even after the government pledged to end the controversial practice in 2014. China has long struggled with a shortage of donated organs because of cultural taboos, and in 2023 the government issued new rules tightening regulation and promoting public awareness.
There was little discussion of the two leaders’ impromptu exchange on Chinese social media, which is heavily censored.
Putin confirmed the conversation with Xi when reporters asked about it later Wednesday, saying, “Oh, I believe the chairman talked about it when we were going to the parade.”
“Modern means, both health improvement, and medical means and even all kinds of surgical ones related to organ replacement, allow humanity to hope that active life will continue not as it does today,” he said.
He also appeared to refer to United Nations estimates that by 2050 there will be more than twice as many people over 60 as children under 5.
“This will have social, political and economic consequences,” he said. “We should certainly think about this, too, when we talk about life expectancy.”
