#chinacoup
MSN, Times of India, and other media outlets are reporting internet rumors that Chinese President Xi Jinping has been put under house arrest, amidst a coup by the military in response to two former ministers being sentenced for corruption last week.
Missing from these rumors is the substantiation of Chinese troops mobilizing to seize key points of the government, like the Xinhua Gate, at the entrance of the Zhongnanhai compound, where the leadership of the Chinese Communist party lives and works. It is also where Xi Jinping lives as well.
The rumors are based on reports of canceled civilian flights in some parts of China and the fact that Xi has not been seen in public since returning from the Shanghai Cooperation Summit last week.
That really isn’t enough to make for a coup in our estimation. Especially when there aren’t western or even Asian journalists all over China filing reports of troops in the streets to quell mass demonstrations, mass arrests of Xi loyalists and key government buildings being seized by the military. You know, the stuff that happens in military coups?