For Indian correspondents in China, the past fortnight has been surreal. In the last week of September, many Indian television news channels began reporting on rumours of a “coup” in Beijing and military convoys entering, even blockading, the Chinese capital. The posts spread like wildfire, so much so that it seemed that every Indian in China was getting flooded with worried calls from people back home asking about “the situation”. One diplomat was asked if there were tanks on the streets. For the record, Beijing seemed as normal as ever.
Despite absolutely no evidence for the claims, the consensus, even of seasoned foreign affairs experts, on these news shows was that “there is no smoke without fire”. But was that the case?
The “smoke”, in this instance, was flight data showing mass cancellations of flights and the fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping hadn’t appeared in public for a week since his return to China on September 17 from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand. Yet both “warning signs” appeared far less suspicious to those on the ground in China, who are familiar with the context of the country’s current pandemic policies.
