This afternoon I saw in several places, including on social media and various message boards, a rumor that there was a coup in progress against Xi Jinping. Supposedly there was a huge military convoy heading to Beijing and supposedly all flights were banned. When looking for sources for this rumor, I could not find any. Just random accounts on Twitter saying it was real without any news articles or other substantial proof.
That was my first red flag about this story. You wouldn't be able to hide a major coup in China. I remember the coup in Turkey a few years back and that was international news pretty much instantly. China is a much larger and more connected country than Turkey could ever be and if there was a coup there it would be the biggest news story in the world right now. It would not be able to be hidden.
Plus, I don't think there is any real reason for there to be a coup in China. Xi Jinping is fairly popular there. China has some problems with their economy, yes, but no more so than any other country right now. And I can't imagine why a coup would happen now of all times.
I also think it's fairly hilarious that people were greeting this news positively, probably assuming that Xi's replacement would be someone pro-USA or at least more moderate. I thought that was even more silly that the rumor in the first place. Why on earth would someone who launched a coup be better than the guy that was in charge in the first place? I would guess that whoever would do that would tend to be even worse than Xi is.
Another aspect of the rumor was that all flights in China were canceled. A quick check of flight radar shows plenty of planes in China flying right now. I'm no expert on aviation, and it did appear that some flights had been canceled, but that seems pretty obvious that all flights have not been canceled. Indeed, it took me a few minutes to check this, so why it became part of the rumor is beyond me.
Finally, even some of the accounts that pushed the rumor, like the one below, have backed off on the theory that their is an active coup against Xi Jinping...
Someone told me that he knows the family of a #CCP admiral, the rumor about Xi's arrest is not true. I'll talk about what is happening in China tonight, titled: "Is Xi Under Arrest After Military Coup? 3 Senior Anti-Xi Officials Sentenced to Death". Sub: https://t.co/BdIj4wQv2r
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) September 23, 2022
So why cover this at all? I think it's important to debunk stuff that I know is untrue because too many people see some account on Twitter and believe it without using critical thinking skills at all. My using mine I was able to discount this rumor right away and hopefully put it to bed. It's possible something is going on in China, but I doubt it's a coup.
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