Social Media Abuzz With Rumor of Coup in Beijing, Xi Jinping Under House Arrest

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As India fights the Chinese on the northern borders, speculation about Chinese President Xi Jinping being put under house arrest has taken over the social media. According to several posts on the Internet, Jinping, who was recently in Samarkand for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or SCO, summit, was removed as the chief of China’s People’s Liberation Army, or the PLA.

However, there has been no official confirmation yet from the Chinese Communist Party or the state media.

“New rumour to be checked out: Is Xi jingping under house arrest in Beijing ? When Xi was in Samarkand recently, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party were supposed to have removed Xi from the Party’s in-charge of Army. Then House arrest followed. So goes the rumour,” former Cabinet minister and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said in a tweet.

Several Chinese nationals on Twitter, also, posted about Xi Jinping’s alleged house arrest. Many claimed that the PLA has taken over control of the army. Some even speculated that Li Qiaoming has been made the President of China.

XI IN QUARANTINE DUE TO ‘ZERO COVID POLICY’?

The Chinese President was in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand to attend the recently-concluded SCO summit. The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Some social media posts also suggested that the Chinese premier could be in quarantine following the country’s strict ‘Zero Covid Policy’. In China, every person who returns to the country from abroad has to undergo a quarantine.

There were also unverified reports that very few commercial flights were flying over the capital Beijing on Saturday, and that all trains and buses were cancelled out of Beijing.

While the Beijing Capital Airport’s website does show that some flights were cancelled, many others were either scheduled or had already landed.

Some people also shared flight radar maps showing no flights over a large part of China. But that is not abnormal. International flights do not fly over Tibet anyway because of aviation guidelines.

WHY THE SUDDEN RUMOUR ABOUT XI JINPING?

Two former ministers were sentenced to death and four officials were sent to life in jail this week in China. According to reports, the six were part of a ‘political faction’. Currently, the Communist Party is running an anti-corruption campaign across the country and it is believed that the six were opponents of Jinping. The news of Jinping’s house arrest is believed to have been started and spread by the anti-Jinping lobby.

**By IndiaToday

**Source

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