Chinese President Xi Jinpings return to public eye ends coup rumours

Xi Jinping,
President of China and leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), made his first
public appearance on Tuesday since returning from a trip from Central Asia,
quashing rumours of a coup in Beijing, CNN reported citing Chinese state
broadcaster CCTV. The Chinese President emerged wearing a face mask along with
Premier Li Keqiang and other top leaders, including members of China’s supreme
Politburo Standing Committee.

This was Xi
Jinping’s first public appearance since returning from the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization summit in Uzbekistan. This was his first trip outside China since
the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, that began in China’s Wuhan
province. Beijing’s stringent protocols to counter COVID-19 kept the president
in the country, unable to attend foreign events.

Xi’s
absence from the public eye led to rumours about a potential coup.
Unsubstantiated claims floated online that said that the Chinese President has
been put under house arrest after being overthrown in a military coup. Xi’s
return along with members of the Politburo Standing Committee was a strong
statement to thwart such claims.

What gave
fuel to the rumour fire was mass cancellation of flights in China, a strategy
that Beijing has often used in a bid to counter coronavirus spread. However, in
the absence of Xi Jinping from the public discourse, the fake news circuit
found a way. Unsubstantiated claims of military vehicles on the roads added
fuel to the fire.

According
to American news network CNN, rumours of the coup were first floated by Chinese
dissidents and amplified by Indian media. The hashtag ‘chinacoup’ was trending
on Twitter over the weekend.

What was
Xi away from the public eye?

Observers
of Chinese politics told CNN that Xi might be following Beijing’s isolation
orders. He did the same thing after he visited Hong Kong in July to mark the 25th
anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese rule, when he was away from the
public eye for over a week. This time, however, his absence was longer and more
significant because Xi is weeks away from the 20th Party Congress
beginning October 16, where he is expected to break with tradition and be
appointed to a third term in power.