The world needs now “to prepare for the regime [in China] to lash out without warning,” according to China expert Gordon Chang in a report at the Gatestone Institute, where he is distinguished senior fellow and a member of the organization’s advisory board.
He cited “rumors” that Xi Jinping is losing control and will lose both his Communist Party and Chinese government posts in the next few months – as well as those who say “little or nothing is out of place and Xi is fine.”
“Whatever the truth,” he said, now is the time when Xi may “have reason to take the world by surprise.”
“There are clear signs that Xi has lost control of the People’s Liberation Army, the most important faction in the Communist Party of China. A series of articles, beginning on July 9 of last year, in PLA Daily, the military’s main propaganda organ, praised ‘collective leadership,’ a clear criticism of Xi’s one-man style of rule. At the same time, many of Xi’s loyalists were removed from their posts,” Change noted.
“The most prominent of those removed was Xi’s No. 1 hatchet man, General He Weidong, last seen in public on March 11. Some believe the general, the No. 2 uniformed officer, was ‘suicided’ in May in the military’s 301 Hospital in Beijing, at about the same time that another Xi supporter, General He Hongjun, was also reportedly killed,” he said.
Another indicator is that Xi was absent from the recent BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, a first, sparking speculation he needed to stay in Beijing to maintain control, or even that others in leadership prevented his travel.
Significant is that analysts have noted state and party media in recent months have “portrayed Xi in a diminished role.”
One comment, from Charles Burton of the Prague-based Sinopsis think tank, noted at a Communist Party symposium just weeks ago Xi was publicly forced to praise “collective leadership.”
Others suggest that signs are nothing more than “unsubstantiated rumors” and reveal a “glaring ignorance” of the situation.
One factor is that his powers over some commissions and groups is diminishing, although analysts disagree on whether he’s being forced into that position, or whether he promoted it himself.
Burton’s conclusion is, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Xi is obviously in some sort of trouble. The smoke keeps pouring out.”
Chang said what it means for the rest of the world is that it is at “great risk” if Xi is “now engaged in no-holds-barred fighting for his political life.”
“He could, for example, trigger a confrontation or start a war, not to rally the Chinese people — at the moment China’s people do not want war — but to prevent other senior Communist Party figures from challenging him,” Chang explained.
He could activate Chinese agents in the U.S. to damage power lines, poison reservoirs bomb shopping centers and start wildfires, using agents that came into America under Joe Biden, Chang wrote.
Whether it’s business-as-usual inside China, or the nation is in turmoil, “the U.S. needs to be prepared for China’s regime to solve its internal disputes by burning down America — and perhaps the rest of the world.”