Unconfirmed information that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been placed under house arrest by the military began to circulate through social media and some agencies on the morning of September 24, 2022.
One of the speculations is that this is related to the intra-party and intra-political struggle within the Communist Party of China ahead of the upcoming congress coupled with the president's fight against massive corruption in the country. In the previous period, a number of high-ranking political officials were sentenced to death for corruption.
There are also reports on Twitter that already on 22 September 2022, several kilometres long motorcades made up of military equipment were moving towards Beijing and other major cities.
Information about political instability comes mostly from Chinese activists living in exile and from Twitter accounts originating in Nepal and Taiwan, which are known for their negative attitude towards the PRC. The videos purporting to show the army's movements towards the capital are short and do not show how much equipment is actually in the convoys (some of the activists who published information about the 80 km long convoy have since corrected their claims). Further evidence that something was going on in Beijing should have been the almost complete suspension of flights from the area, as documented by sites monitoring flight traffic. However, flights have not been restricted in other locations, and official information puts the flight restrictions around Beijing in connection with planned military exercises.
Sources:www.bloomberg.com
One of the speculations is that this is related to the intra-party and intra-political struggle within the Communist Party of China ahead of the upcoming congress coupled with the president's fight against massive corruption in the country. In the previous period, a number of high-ranking political officials were sentenced to death for corruption.
There are also reports on Twitter that already on 22 September 2022, several kilometres long motorcades made up of military equipment were moving towards Beijing and other major cities.
Information about political instability comes mostly from Chinese activists living in exile and from Twitter accounts originating in Nepal and Taiwan, which are known for their negative attitude towards the PRC. The videos purporting to show the army's movements towards the capital are short and do not show how much equipment is actually in the convoys (some of the activists who published information about the 80 km long convoy have since corrected their claims). Further evidence that something was going on in Beijing should have been the almost complete suspension of flights from the area, as documented by sites monitoring flight traffic. However, flights have not been restricted in other locations, and official information puts the flight restrictions around Beijing in connection with planned military exercises.