• Saturday, April 20, 2024

HEADLINE STORY

Has Chinese president Xi Jinping been put under house arrest? Internet explodes

Chinese president Xi Jinping (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

The internet went abuzz on Saturday (24) with claims that Chinese president Xi Jinping, one of the most powerful holders of the post in history, was put under house arrest. A number of social media handles said it happened after senior leaders of the 100-plus -year-old Chinese Communist Party removed him as the head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

There were also claims that Beijing was under military seizure and some former leaders of China persuaded Song Ping, a former member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, to retain control of the Central Guard Bureau.

ALSO READ: Mass cancellation of flights; rumours of president Xi under house arrest: What’s cooking in China?

Reports also said that Xi was detained at the airport after he returned to China from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit which was held last week in Samarkand in Uzbekistan and was most probably under house arrest. One Twitter post even said that PLA commander General Li Qiaoming was the new president of China. Another one said several flights from China were cancelled.

There were also posts on Twitter saying that military vehicles were heading to Beijing on Thursday (22) starting from Huanlai City near the Chinese capital and ending in Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province, making up a procession which is 80 kilometres long.

Rumours begin after life sentence to former deputy security minister Sun Lijun

It can be mentioned here that China’s former deputy security minister Sun Lijun, who allegedly led a “political clique” and showed little loyalty to Xi, was given a life sentence on Friday (24), ahead of a crucial Communist Party Congress. He was accused of seriously denouncing the party’s unity.

The sentencing came after five former chiefs of police who were implicated in Sun’s corruption case were imprisoned earlier this week, suggesting that the biggest purge in China’s security apparatus was heading to a conclusion.

However, the authenticity of the claims could not be verified since no major news channels of the world, including those in China, carried any news related to the internet buzz at the time of writing this report.

Here are some Twitter posts related to the alleged house arrest of Xi that broke the internet on Saturday:

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