Was Chinese President Xi Jinping in house arrest after military coup? Fact Check

A Twitter post has gone viral claiming that the Chinese president Xi Jinping has been put under house arrest and that he was removed as head after a military coup.

Shared by one Jennifer Zeng @jenniferzeng97, the tweet said: “#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.” See the tweet with video here:

#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

— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferzeng97) September 23, 2022

FACT CHECK

When the rumour started spreading faster, we took it up for fact checking and found that it was not true. No news agency or newspaper carried the sensational news indicating that it was not true or not confirmed.

Further search revealed that Xi Jinpin appeared in the public on 27 September 2022, when he visited an exhibition of Communist party, almost 11 days after he last attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan on 16 September 2022, where Indian PM Narendra Modi was also present.

News reports said that Xi Jinping has been put under 7-day quarantine after his Uzbekistan’s visit as per the Dynamic Zero COVID policy, enforced in the country by Xi Jinping himself.

The rumour started with a speculation on 23rd September by Jennifer Zeng, a Chinese-dissident living in the US, who tweeted a video showing military vehicles lined up on the road, heading to Beijing. There, she added that there were rumours about Xi’s house arrest and CCP seniors had removed Xi as head of PLA. Hence, the claim was false.

Claim: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s house arrested after Military Coup in China.

Conclusion: Xi Jinping was under quarantine after his return from SCO summit.

Rating: Misrepresentation –