As it turns out, the rumors of a military coup in China were not true. Here's how the idea that Xi Jinping was being held at home went viral.
The rumors spread because a lot of flights were canceled at Beijing Airport and there was a big military buildup in the city for a drill.
There have been rumors of a coup in China for the last few days. This is because a lot of flights have been canceled at Beijing airport and there has been a huge buildup of military forces in Beijing. Many people say that President Xi Jinping has been kicked out of office and put under house arrest by the PLA. But nothing has been proven yet, so it's likely that the rumors are not true.
Several Chinese social media accounts have said in the last few days that Xi Jinping has lost his military powers and is under house arrest. People said the "coup" happened while the Chinese prime minister was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. Rumors say that while Jinping was in Samarkand, people in his party who didn't like him persuaded the top leaders of the party to remove Jinping as leader of the army.
News Highland Vision says that former Chinese President Hu Jintao and former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao convinced former Politburo member Song Ping to take over the Central Guard Bureau (CGB) from Jinping.
Central Guard Bureau is a specialized group that is in charge of protecting senior party members like Jinping, their families, and important foreign dignitaries in China.
It was said that after Jinping lost control of CGB, the Politburo Standing Committee got rid of Xi's military power.
When Xi Jinping heard about what was going on, he went back to Beijing right away. However, he was supposedly arrested at the airport on September 16 and put under house arrest at Zhongnanhai. At Zhongnanhai in Beijing, you can find, among other things, the central headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party, the State Council of China, and the office of the Chinese Premier. People also say that former president Hu Jintao is in charge of what is going on in China right now.
To spread the rumor even more, a video was widely shared on social media with the claim that it showed a large group of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers leaving for Beijing in an 80 km long convoy.
Chinese activist Wanjun Xie was one of many people who shared this claim along with the video. He wrote that the first part of the convoy had reached Huailai near Beijing and the last part had reached Zhangjiakou in the province of Hebei. This means that the convoy was 80 km long.
But the video that was shared with the claim is less than a minute long and shows only a few military vehicles on the road. This means that the claim of an 80 km long military convoy could not be proven.
The large number of flights that were canceled at Beijing airport also added to the rumors. Many people say that around 6,000 flights have been canceled at the airport. They say that the flights over Beijing have been canceled because of the coup and military operations. Some news stories said that instead of 6000 flights being canceled, only 60% were.
Other claims are hard to check because it's hard to get information out of China, but this one is easy to check because flights can be tracked by several websites. We have looked into the claims of cancellations and found that they are true. Flightradar24, a site that tracks flights, shows that Beijing Capital International Airport is almost at a standstill because there aren't many flights coming in or leaving the airport.
The portal also shows that a lot of the flights that were supposed to take off from the airport have been canceled or their status is unknown. On the other hand, the portal shows that other major airports in China, like Shanghai and Hong Kong, are running normally.
So, the claim that a lot of flights have been canceled at Beijing Airport is true, which can be seen on sites that track flights.
But it's not clear if the cancellations are because of the alleged coup in Beijing or because of something else. Some reports say that the flights were canceled because of a military exercise that had been planned ahead of time.
Jennifer Zeng, an activist and author, also made the claim about the 80 km long military convoy to Beijing. Today, she tweeted that the rumor about Xi being arrested is not true.
But even if the coup rumors aren't true, there are still enough signs that something could be going on in Beijing. Xi Jinping went to the SCO summit, but he missed the dinner that other leaders went to. It was said that Covid-19 was the reason for the absence, but not everyone believed it.
People also say that Xi Jinping was not at a high-level meeting in Beijing on Wednesday about National Defense and Military Reform. Even though he was already back in Beijing from Uzbekistan, he didn't go to the meeting where Army Commander Liu Zhenli and General Li Qiaoming, who was in charge of the Theatre Command of the North, were present.
But there are reports that Xi Jinping spoke at the conference, which means he was there and the reports that he didn't go could be wrong.
In spite of all the rumors, it's interesting that Beijing hasn't said anything about the matter yet. But sources from the Argentine embassy in China have said that the claims are not true. It is also interesting that the "news" of the coup was spread on social media by mostly Chinese activists living outside of China and anti-China Twitter handles from Nepal and Taiwan. So, the rumors were never very likely to be true, and now it's almost certain that they were wrong and that Xi Jinping is still the President of China.