Today News: What is Going on in China? Xi Jinping is not Seen in Public After a Likely Paralytic Heart Attack
President Xi Jinping of China reportedly fell ill during the plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] on 18 July 2024 and had to be taken for treatment as per latest news world. Ever since then he was not seen in public and it is rumoured around that he has suffered a paralytic heart attack. Mind you, it is only a rumour now and it has spread very fast across social media because it is about the president of the People’s Republic of China, a great power if not a super power.
The problem with the reliability of this information is that whenever anything comes out of China, especially information, it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
China is an authoritarian police state where the government not just censors flow of information but also controls it, if you go by latest news international or from any other media.
It must be noted that the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua has not said anything about this rumour doing the rounds in social media, which is understandable.
However, it must also be noted that not all information that comes out of unconventional sources in China are false or fake and some actually are quite true.
In this regard, it is important to understand that there is a serious power struggle going on between Xi and many senior leaders of the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] leadership and many of the senior leaders of the CCP.
Xi has a long list of rivals and enemies in PLA and CCP
Xi got the constitution amended in March 2018 to remove the two-term limit of the presidency of China for himself at the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
As it always happens in China, this was a rubber-stamp exercise with a near unanimous approval of the amendment according to latest news world.
That very day Xi made a whole lot of enemies who are not just powerful but also dangerous and as ambitious as him if not more. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Xi was paranoid about these rivals.
Xi knew that and from then on, he systematically and steadily removed most of them from their positions either by sacking them or making them disappear.
Xi’s paranoia grew in proportion to his suspicion about people around him
In their place he has brought in mediocre yes men with limited capacity for constructive work and maximum capacity for hatching conspiracies against upright performers.
As a result, Xi is now surrounded by people who won’t be able to handle even minor crises in case anything happens to him as it seems have now.
As per latest news international, that has resulted in some embarrassing incidents like graft in the country’s defence preparedness especially the rocket force, where many of the missiles were found to have water instead of rocket fuel.
Another major issue is that millions of Chinese do not pay taxes and for that Xi has ordered the Chinese police to assist the tax officials collect taxes forcefully. This has not gone down well with many people, who now want him out of power.
This situation has snowballed into mass outrage among large segments of the people who are represented by some powerful people about whom Xi is paranoid. In fact, before falling ill at the CCP plenum meeting, Xi had addressed a meeting where he cautioned his supporters to be prepared for a civil war. Intriguingly, in this backdrop, Xi is rumoured to have suffered a paralytic heart attack at the annual plenum meeting although officially China has not announced it. That is the problem with authoritarian states with a paranoid and insecure dictator and no proper succession plan. If this results in a civil war of succession in China, the global economy, including India will face a serious crisis.
AUTHOR: Dev Kumar is an independent geo-political observer, commentator and blogger who tries to look at international issues in relation to India and present a different dimension that has hardly been covered by mainstream experts.
