Beijing’s grand military parade marking the anniversary of World War II took an unexpected and unsettling—turn when a CCTV livestream accidentally picked up a private exchange between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Instead of discussing defense, trade, or diplomacy, the two leaders reportedly drifted into talk of biotechnology, organ transplants, and the possibility of outliving death itself.
According to the translation broadcast live, Putin’s interpreter conveyed: “Human organs can be continuously transplanted… the longer you live, the younger you become… even achieve immortality.”
Xi, off-camera but measured as ever, chimed in: “Some predict humans may live to 150 this century.”
The strange detour in conversation was framed by the spectacle of marching battalions, tanks, and hypersonic missile displays. To viewers, it was a jarring contrast: dictators musing about eternal life while parading the tools of destruction.
Adding to the surreal scene, Kim Jong Un sat nearby, reportedly smirking like the awkward third wheel in a dystopian sci-fi pitch meeting.
Neither Moscow nor Beijing has offered clarification or denial, leaving the episode to circulate online unchecked. The juxtaposition is stark: at a parade intended to glorify past victory and present power, two of the world’s most authoritarian leaders were overheard speculating on transcending human mortality.
For many, it raises the question: when “immortality” becomes the obsession of men already clinging to power at all costs, what future are they imagining—and who pays the price for their quest to defeat death?
The irony grows sharper when contrasted with the Dalai Lama. Earlier this year, His Holiness affirmed that he would live to the age of 130. Yet unlike the transhumanist fantasies of Beijing and Moscow, his longevity is framed not through laboratories or exploitation, but through harmony with nature, ethical living, and spiritual discipline.
