Fact check: Xi Jinping under house arrest? Here is what fuelled the rumour

Rumours about Chinese president Xi Jinping being under house arrest in Beijing have taken the internet by storm. Here is the truth of the matter so far.

Hyderabad: Rumours about Chinese president Xi Jinping being under house arrest in Beijing have taken the internet by storm. The hashtag 'XiJinping' was among the most trending ones on Twitter on Saturday. The rumour is being fuelled after several Chinese social media handles tweeted that Xi has been placed under house arrest after the Chinese Communist Party seniors removed him as head of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

ETV Bharat did not find any truth to such rumours. No major English news portals in China, or any credible international news agency carried such news or hinted at any such development.

We also found that a blogger and YouTuber from China Jennifer Zeng, who has almost 200,000 followers on Twitter, claimed in a tweet that PLA military vehicles were heading to Beijing on September 22 even as she said there was a rumour that Xi was under arrest after CCP seniors removed him as head of PLA. She even shared a video of Chinese army vehicles "heading towards Beijing".

Fact check: Xi Jinping under house arrest? Here is what fuelled the rumour

This tweet and the video were the major reason for the rumour getting heightened attention with the video having over 1.5 million views since it was uploaded on Friday evening by Zeng. After listening to her YouTube blog on the same issue, we found she did not have any verified information on the matter.

Apart from her, among those who tweeted about the rumour was BJP leader Subramanian Swamy. "New rumour to be checked out: Is Xi Jinping under house arrest in Beijing? When Xi was in Samarkand recently, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party were supposed to have removed Xi from the Party’s in-charge of Army. Then House arrest followed. So goes the rumour," Swamy tweeted.

Fact check: Xi Jinping under house arrest? Here is what fuelled the rumour

Interestingly, the rumours are being floated a day after a senior former Chinese security official accused of challenging Xi Jinping’s authority was given a life sentence, weeks ahead of a key Communist Party leadership congress. Sun Lijun, who was Vice Minister of Public Security, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. The court said the sentence can be commuted to life in prison but without any reduction or parole.

Who is Xi Jinping?

Born in 1953, Xi Jinping leads the world's most populated country and second-largest economy. He holds a firm grasp on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and has, over the years, developed a sort of cult personality throughout China.

Be it in books, cartoons, or pop songs, his rule is honoured in such a way that he has grown into this larger-than-life figure who is more of a powerful ruler than a political figure. Following Xi's ascension to the leadership core of the CCP, he was even referred to as Xi Dada (Uncle or Papa Xi).

The CCP's Politburo named Xi Jinping 'lingxiu', a reverent term for "leader" and a title previously only given to Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and his immediate successor Hua Guofeng. Xi is also sometimes called the "pilot at the helm". In 2019, the Politburo officially named Xi as "People's Leader" , a title only Mao had held previously.

In March 2018, China's parliament amended its constitution, broadening Xi's power and scrapping term limits.