Eerie vacuum over Chinese airspace heightens mystery over China and Xi Jinping
Amid speculation of a coup, the Chinese media has kept silent, with even the Global Times not reporting on the recent happenings in the region.
A big mystery erupted over the military activity in China, with over 10,000 flights in Beijing being cancelled on Saturday. There is no aerial movement in the region between September 23-24, as undated visuals allegedly of a military convoy heading towards China are doing the rounds on Twitter. Social media is buzzing with speculations of an impending coup in China with President Xi Jinping being ‘under house arrest.’
The speculations were further fuelled after Chinese human right activist Jennifer Zeng shared a video on Twitter, with the caption- “PLA military vehicles heading to Beijing on September 22. Starting from Huanlai County near Beijing and ending in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, the entire procession is as long as 80 km. Meanwhile, rumour has it that Xi Jinping was under arrest after CCP seniors removed him as head of PLA.”
All this while, the Chinese media has kept silent, with even the Global Times not reporting on the recent happenings in the region. Beijing seems to be cut off from the whole world.
What do the experts say?
Speaking exclusively to Republic TV, Strategic Expert Sushant Sareen said, “All the speculation around a coup taking place is just rumour-mongering, as of now. There is no evidence to suggest some sort of coup or regime change might be happening. Yet, with the report that the air space is empty and army movements taking place, it is entirely possible that some sort of country-wide drill is happening. Given the kind of tensions China is facing with the United States, India and a couple of other countries, it may be the Chinese flexing their muscles and giving some sort of signal— that could be a possible explanation of what is happening.”
Madhav Das Nalapat, first Professor of Geopolitics, similarly, said, “The reports about the coup are simply rumours.There’s one explanation for this- This is a major military exercise to plan for the contingency in which China gets embroiled in a major war on the Himalayan- which can also explain, for example, the closure of Alaska aerospace or across the Taiwan straits.”
