Who wants to live forever? Xi and Putin, apparently.
In a conversation caught on a hot mic, the leaders of China and Russia chatted about human longevity, organ replacement surgery and the possibility of living to 150.
When Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday, their discussions may have included China downplaying the United States’ role in World War II or “new generation” weapons on display. But there was one topic of conversation few could have predicted: Immortality.
Xi and Putin, both 72, chatted about human longevity, organ transplants and the possibility of living forever as they walked alongside North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, 41, at an event marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The conversation was captured on a hot microphone and broadcast through Chinese state media.
“In the past, people rarely lived to be 70,” Xi said through a Russian translator. “But today, they say that at 70 you’re still a child.”
Putin, through a Chinese translator, responded: “People can keep getting organ transplants.”
“You might look younger as you live, and you might even achieve immortality,” he said.
The recorded comments concluded with Xi saying, “Some predict that in this century, humans may live up to 150 years.”
Speaking to reporters later, Putin said that “social, political and economic consequences” were likely to follow from modern medical developments such as organ replacement surgery that “allow humanity to hope that life expectancy will increase significantly.”
Searches for “150 years” were censored on Weibo, a popular social media site in China, after the event. Posts about living to that age surged across other Chinese social media platforms Wednesday and Thursday following the hot mic conversation, with at least one company seizing on the moment to promote their health care services.
The notion of living to the age of 150 has been mentioned in recent years by Chinese state media speculating on advances in health care and technology.
Xi, Putin and Kim were among more than two dozen world leaders who attended Beijing’s largest-ever military parade, where its latest weapons such as AI-enhanced, anti-drone tanks and anti-ship hypersonic missiles were showcased and China positioned itself as the center of an alternative to Western global power.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.