Queen once asked, "Who wants to live forever?" And while the band's frontman Freddie Mercury only made it into his 40s, the song's question continues to haunt people—especially aging tyrants who fear that the icy hand of death is upon their shoulder and want far more time to ensure both national and personal glory. At a Beijing gathering this week, China's Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met to commemorate Japan's defeat in World War II. The three men and their translators were caught on hot mics having an "unscripted moment" in which the conversation turned to life extensions and immortality. "Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 years you are still a child," Xi told the other two, according to Bloomberg. (This is gross hyperbole, of course, as China's overall life expectancy rate is 77.6, while in Russia it is just 70—below the global average of 71.4. The US average is 76.4.) Putin then responded with the somewhat creepy claim that, thanks to biotech, "human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality." Xi then responded with the claim that people may live to 150 by the end of this century.
First seen: 2025-09-03 21:57
Last seen: 2025-09-05 18:14