Is Chinese President Xi Jinping under house arrest? Rumours rife on social media

The social media is abuzz with speculation about Chinese President Xi Jinping being put under house arrest. According to several posts on the internet, Jinping, who was recently in Samarkand for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, or SCO, summit, was removed as the chief of China’s People’s Liberation Army, or the PLA.

However, there has been no official confirmation yet from the Chinese Communist Party or the state media.

“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,” former cabinet minister and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said in a 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.

— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) September 24, 2022

Several Chinese nationals on Twitter also posted about Jinping’s alleged house arrest. Many claimed that the PLA has taken over control of the army. Some even speculated that Li Qiaoming has been made the President of China.

Also read: US sending ‘dangerous signals’ on Taiwan, China tells US’ state secretary Blinken

“#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,” tweeted one Jennifer Zeng.

#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

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) September 23, 2022

Flights grounded?

Reports also suggested that almost 60% of flights in China were grounded on Friday, without any explanation.

Chinese author Gordon Chang, who is also based in the US, quote tweeted Zeng’s video and wrote: “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.”

Rumours follow crackdown

The development comes a day after Bloomberg reported that a Chinese court sentenced a former top security official to life in prison, completing a crackdown on the “political clique” he led against Xi Jinping just weeks before a crucial Communist Party reshuffle.

Two former ministers were sentenced to death and four officials were sent to life in jail this week in China. According to reports, the six were part of a ‘political faction’. Currently, the Communist Party is running an anti-corruption campaign across the country and it is believed that the six were opponents of Jinping. The news of Jinping’s house arrest is believed to have been started and spread by the anti-Jinping lobby.

Also read: Putin says China has concerns over Ukraine war as he meets Xi Jinping

The Chinese President was in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand to attend the recently-concluded SCO summit. The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.