Coup Rumors

choi

Both news reports were published 2 1/2 hours ago.

(1) Damian Grammaticas, Damaging Coup Rumours Ricochet Across China. BBC (English), Mar 22, 2012.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17476760

Quote:

"Photographs of tanks and armoured cars on city streets were flying around Twitter and elsewhere. On closer inspection though, some of the pictures seemed to be old ones from rehearsals for military parades, others did not even seem to be of Beijing, as they claimed, but different Chinese cities.

"The problem for China's Communist Party is that it has no effective way of refuting such talk. There are no official spokesmen who will go on the record, no sources briefing the media on the background. Did it happen? Nobody knows. So the rumours swirl.

"The official media, often waiting for political guidance, can be slow and unresponsive. Many in China are now so cynical about the level of censorship that they will not believe what comes from the party's mouthpieces even if it is true. Instead they will give credence to half-truths or fabrications on the web. That is corrosive for the party's authority.

(2) Malcolm moore, Rumours in China Over a Split in Communist Party Leadership; One of the Communist party's official newspapers has made a plea for clarity as rumours about a split in China's top leadership swirl through Beijing. Daily telegraph, Mar 22, 2012.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ ... rty-leadership.html
("One particularly persistent rumour, which has not been linked to any informed source, is that Mr Bo and Zhou Yongkang, the former head of China's Public Security ministry, had plotted a coup. What is clear is that neither Mr Bo, nor Mr Zhou, have been heard of since last Wednesday. Mr Zhou did not appear at a national legal propaganda conference in Shanghai this week, which he had previously attended in 2010, but sent a letter instead")


-----------------------Separately
Jeremy Page and Yang Jie, Another Chongqing Mystery: Ex-Police Chief’s Patents. China Real Time, Mar 22, 2012
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealti ... ice-chiefs-patents/
("The patents [about 150 in his name], most of which are for police equipment, range from raincoats for female officers to the exterior design of an all-terrain counterterrorist attack vehicle, according to China Intellectual Property Net, cnipr.com, a Chinese government-backed website")