On Saturday, a major conference on national defence and military reform was held in Beijing, and it was reported that close to 10,000 flights were cancelled, which fueled the rumours of Xi's arrest and a possible Chinese coup.
Over the past 48 hours, the Chinese rumour mill has spiralled out of control. For those who are unaware of the rumours, Xi was purportedly ousted in a coup prior to the Party Congress in October.
#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
On Twitter, one of the top trending topics by September 24 was Xi Jinping. More than 42,000 times his name was hashtagged, and 9,300 times the word "China coup" was used on the platform.
“New rumour to be checked out: Is Xi jingping [sic] under house arrest in Beijing?” wrote Subramanian Swamy, a former Indian cabinet minister and parliamentary member until April.
These rumours also surfaced when Chinese nationals reported allegedly widespread flight disr...