New Delhi: Unverified news regarding Chinese President Xi Jinping has taken the world by storm as reports of the latter being under house arrest by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) surfaced on Saturday.
Various tweets by Chinese handles indicate that Jinping has been put under the watch of the PLA, while the media of the South Asian country is yet to clarify the rumours.
The news of Jinping’s crackdown comes a day after Bloomberg reported that a top Chinese official has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the court on pretext of the clampdown he led against Xi Jinping ahead of the Communist Party reshuffle.
A Chinese human rights activist Jennifer Zeng posted a video on her Twitter handle claiming that the PLA is moving to take over Beijing.
“#PLA military vehicles heading to #Beijing on Sep 22. Starting from Huanlai County near Beijing & ending in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, entire procession as long as 80 KM. Meanwhile, rumor has it that #XiJinping was under arrest after #CCP seniors removed him as head of PLA”, she wrote in the caption.
#PLA military vehicles heading to #Beijing on Sep 22. Starting from Huanlai County near Beijing & ending in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, entire procession as long as 80 KM. Meanwhile, rumor has it that #XiJinping was under arrest after #CCP seniors removed him as head of PLA pic.twitter.com/hODcknQMhE
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) September 23, 2022
Chinese author Gordon Chang, now residing in the US also shared the same video in a tweet which read, “This video of military vehicles moving to #Beijing comes immediately after the grounding of 59% of the flights in the country and the jailings of senior officials. There’s a lot of smoke, which means there is a fire somewhere inside the #CCP. #China is unstable”.
This video of military vehicles moving to #Beijing comes immediately after the grounding of 59% of the flights in the country and the jailings of senior officials. There’s a lot of smoke, which means there is a fire somewhere inside the #CCP. #China is unstable. https://t.co/hSUS3210GR
— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) September 24, 2022
Meanwhile, name of PLA General Li Qiaoming has also emerged amid the political clique with numerous reports claiming him to be Jinping’s successor. Former lawmaker Subramanian Swamy wrote in his recent tweet, “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”.
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.
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 24, 2022