While floods ravage northern China Heavy rains and floods have lashed China for two weeks, but President Xi Jinping has not toured the devastated areas.To get more china breaking news, you can visit shine news official website. This has left some Chinese residents angry and confused. Following this, people have started to repost videos and photos on social media comparing Mr Xi to former Chinese leaders such as Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. As Mr Xi's name has been heavily censored on Chinese social media, some users have used VPNs to access the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to express their displeasure at his absence.China's official data shows that more than 444,463 homes have collapsed or been damaged by flooding since 29 July. President Xi has always been concerned about the people affected by disasters everywhere," Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in a meeting on Tuesday. "[He] has been giving important instructions and personally deployed and directed the response." Where is Xi? As part of China was flooded on Thursday, Mr Xi's chief of staff met with experts holidaying in Beidaihe - a sign that top officials have begun their summer break at the seaside resort, according to Reuters. In the past, Beidaihe has provided a casual environment for retired leaders of the Chinese Communist Party to network and engage with the current leadership. The last time the Chinese public saw Mr Xi on television was on 31 July, three days after Typhoon Doksuri made landfall in China, when he attended a military promotion ceremony in Beijing.Instead of personally visiting the flooded cities, Mr Xi assigned Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing to travel to disaster relief sites in Hebei and Tianjin, the People's Daily reported. It's not the first time Xi Jinping has not gone to the scene," said Deng Yuwen, a former state-run newspaper editor who is now a current affairs commentator in the U.S. Mr Deng said Mr Xi also did not visit Zhengzhou last year after a deadly flood swept through the city, killing at least 380 people. Instead, he issued some instructions on the fourth day of the disaster while travelling to Tibet to visit local officials.Mr Deng believes this reflects Mr Xi's view of himself as a leader "superior" to his predecessors. "It shows a shift in thinking about what he calls 'central position' - being in control of the big picture, rather than visiting disaster sites in person," he said. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, it has become almost a tradition for top party leaders to visit disaster sites shortly after a disaster occurs. State media would then produce reports and propaganda about these visits to show the nation that its leaders cared about the people. On 28 July 1976, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck China's eastern Hebei province, flattening the city of Tangshan overnight. According to state media, then Chairman Mao Zedong, despite being "seriously ill" and bedridden, read a report on the disaster and dispatched former Premier Hua Guofeng to the disaster area.