An unscripted exchange in Beijing featured the leaders talking about life expectancy, biotech, and immortality
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have been caught on a live microphone sharing a rare unscripted chat about longevity and biotechnology.
The conversation took place on Wednesday, as Putin and Kim joined Xi in Beijing to view a military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of imperial Japan’s defeat in World War II. A live feed of the event briefly carried their exchange as they walked up to the Tiananmen Gate, and was quickly flagged by social media users following the event. Bloomberg later published a clip from the broadcast.
The audio, patchy and lasting under a minute, began with Xi saying in Mandarin that “these days” reaching 70 years was no longer unusual. A Russian interpreter was then heard relaying his remark: “Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 years you are still a child.”
Putin then responded with a comment not clearly picked up on the feed, though an interpreter’s Mandarin version suggested the Russian leader spoke about biotechnology. “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality,” the interpreter was heard saying. The statement rendered into Korean also referenced organ transplants.
Xi then said: “Predictions are, this century, there’s a chance of also living to 150.” The camera cut away as he finished. Xi and Putin are both 72, while Kim is 41.
Later on, Putin confirmed the conversation when asked about it by Russian reporters. “Modern medical developments, including surgery to replace organs, give rise to expectations that life expectancy will increase significantly,” he said, adding that such changes would have “social, political, and economic consequences.”
