The news of an alleged coup in China, with President Xi Jinping under house arrest, is popular on social media. On Twitter, the hashtag Xi and #ChinaCoup are trending, but no confirmation comes from the Beijing government and the news does not appear in the Chinese media. For many Internet sites it would be unfounded news that is part of an anti-Xi conspiracy. According to thousands of users on social networks, unconfirmed, the organization of the coup by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army would have started while Xi was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to participate in the summit of the SCO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. . And according to some sources, it is somehow linked to the death sentence of former Chinese deputy minister of public security Sun Lijun on corruption charges. The first to spread the news of the alleged coup was a Twitter account, New Highland Vision, which has over 20,000 followers and which wrote that former Chinese president Hu Jintao and former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had convinced Song Ping, l ‘former member of the Politburo Standing Committee, to take control of the Xi Central Guard Office. Upon hearing the news, according to this reconstruction, Xi would have returned to Beijing from Samarkand in advance and would have been arrested at the airport. Newsweek speaks of “speculation” and refers to sources that claim that a coup has been conducted in China, citing the fact that no commercial flights have flown over Beijing since yesterday.
The sources guarantee, although there is no confirmation, that rail and bus connections from the Chinese capital have also been canceled. From the website of the Beijing Capital airport, Newsweek continues, it can be seen that several flights departing from the Chinese capital have been canceled, but many others are still planned or have already landed. The Times of India talks about six thousand canceled domestic and international flights and the suspension of the sale of high-speed train tickets. According to other sources on Twitter, 59 percent of flights departing from Beijing have been canceled. Newsweek also talks about a military exercise that used to be a program but has been canceled.
The sources that on social media claim that there has been an alleged coup in China also cite a video circulating on Twitter and which, according to the post, would show a long line of 80 kilometers of military vehicles headed to Beijing. It is a film that dates back to 22 September, but which, since it lasts less than a minute, does not allow us to ascertain whether the column of military vehicles is really that long. The rumor of the alleged coup was also fueled by Indian politician Subramanian Swamy, who tweeted to his 10 million followers: «New rumor to check: Is Xi Jingping under house arrest in Beijing? When Xi was recently in Samarkand, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party should have removed Xi from his post as head of the Party’s army. Then followed the house arrest. So they say ».
Drew Thompson, a former US Defense Department official for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, described the rumors as “complete untruth.” The news of the coup was also rejected by the columnist Frida Ghitis, a former CNN correspondent, also rejected the “bad rumors” coming from China