Free Republic

This was psychological warfare at its best. The world found Xi Jinping trending on Twitter on Saturday (the third top trend in India), albeit for reasons that did not make the Chinese happy. Twitter was full of unverified rumours about Xi being placed under house arrest in a palace coup. The reports said the Chinese president was detained after CCP seniors removed him as head of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The coup reports emerged after Xi’s return from Samarkand in Uzbekistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Summit (SCO). ... One of the reasons why the disinformation campaign around Xi's house...

Social media across China and the rest of Asia continues to be in overdrive today as persistent rumours that president Xi Jinping has been removed in a coup refuse to die down. Chinese army general Li Qiaoming (left) and President Xi Jinping (Source: PA) © Provided by City AM Local and regional media speculate China’s long-standing leader was removed when he was away in Samarkand while attending the recent SCO summit, on 14 September. Xi Jinping has reportedly not been seen in public since then although any rumours have been widely debunked in the last 24 hours. Nevertheless, according to...