Beijing Surrounded? Military Awaits Orders, Zhao Leji Betrays Xi!

Lunar New Year's Eve becomes removing Xi. Beijing-surrounded military may spring a surprise. Zhao Leji backs Zhang Yuxia. Openly defies Xi Jinping. Beijing emergency meeting. Zhang Yuxia case takes a dramatic turn. Top CCP figures openly defy Xi Jinping. China's sixth-generation fighter exposes critical flaws, requiring at least 10 more years for a technological breakthrough. Year-end nears. Beijing flooded with police as industries collapse. Even the poorest can't find leftovers to scavenge. Shanghai. Also buckling as a pre-Lunar New Year depression hits. South Koreans shout at Chinese tourists. The Communist Party is destroying China. You're watching Decoding China, where we bring you timely analysis and grounded perspectives on today's China. Lunar New Year's Eve becomes removing Xi. Beijing-surrounded military may spring a surprise. Zhao Leji backs Zhang Yuxia. Openly defies Xi Jinping. The recent atmosphere in Beijing's political scene feels very off. A piece of news suddenly exploded on the X platform. CCP No. 3 figured Zhao Leji publicly and directly opposed Xi Jinping. In the emergency meeting of the National People's Congress Standing Committee chaired by Zhao, it unexpectedly did not approve Xi Jinping's arrest of Zhang Yuxia and Liu Zhenli. Once this news broke, the internet immediately buzzed. Various keyboard warriors jumped in. Why does Zhao Leji dare? Because he has military backing. The anti-Xi military forces have already besieged Beijing, and Xi has long been in a perilous situation. The deadlock is hard to break with imaginations running wild to the skies. Some law-savvy netizens also popped up to explain the law. For the approval of arresting an NPC deputy, the procedure requires first notifying the Standing Committee, then a resolution, then approval. This step was indeed violated. These observations are not without basis. Reports of unusual movements in the military, multiple theater commands have seen troop redeployments, and areas around Beijing appear to be in a special deployment state. Some have even made a shocking claim that this year's Chinese New Year's Eve might turn into a political absence. From the NPC's allocation of deputies to the cold treatment of officials to troop movements, all these clues intertwine and point to the same question. What exactly has happened at the top levels in Beijing? Is Xi Jinping's power tightening? Or is it shaking? One particularly noteworthy phenomenon is that the survival time of Xi Jinping's important news on headlines has noticeably shortened recently. If, after arresting Zhang Yuxia and Liu Zhenli, Xi Jinping had truly gained comprehensive support from the party and military and reclaimed his throne of absolute dominance, then official media should have vigorously and intensively built momentum. Hyping Xi to the skies and making a big noise about it. But the reality is exactly the opposite. Even more noteworthy is that, while the military appears calm on the surface, there are actually undercurrents surging. Recently, former Navy Lieutenant Colonel Staff Officer Yao Cheng made a quite intriguing observation. He believes that the current military deployments have basically been completed. And this is not an ordinary routine exercise, but a staged targeted special operation. Synthetic brigades from various theater commands are conducting hidden training deployments in their respective areas of responsibility. What is hidden training? It means targeted combat preparations with hypothetical enemies. Even more shocking is the second scene. Beijing's surroundings have already been surrounded by troops. According to information obtained, the 79th Army of the Northern Theater Command, the 81st Army in Shandong, and the 81st, 82nd, and 83rd Armies of the Central Theater Command have all moved. Such large-scale nationwide coordinated troop movements cannot possibly be the private actions of any individual or unit, but are planned deployments. So who is this defending against? The answer may be to prevent escape. This extremely secretive emergency combat plan reportedly doesn't even issue documents. It's all single-line contact and verbal transmission, with an extremely high level of confidentiality. Who is the mastermind behind it? Even more explosive is that Yao Ching made a quite bold prediction. This year's Chinese New Year's Eve may very likely become a political removal of Xi insignificance. His logic is that during the New Year period, military readiness is often at its most relaxed, making it the easiest time for a surprise move. By controlling the areas around Beijing, forcing Xi Jinping to step down and undergo fair judicial trial, this may be the ultimate goal in the emergency plan. Yao Ching stated that Zhang Youxia has promoted a very important point, the nationalization of the military. Only when the military is no longer the private army of a certain dictator or a certain party, can officers' lives and property safety be protected under the law rather than the current situation where the boss can arrest whoever he wants. So, will earth-shattering events occur on the upcoming New Year's Eve? Xi Jinping often speaks of great changes unseen in a century. But now, has this great change already arrived at his feet? This drama is far from curtain call. Beijing Emergency Meeting Zhang Youxia case takes a dramatic turn. Top CCP figures openly defy Xi Jinping. At the beginning of 2026, a new power struggle shook China's political landscape. The military authority of Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Military Commission, CMC, was effectively stripped in practice yet without any formal public announcement. The incident resembled a silent earthquake, rapidly spreading throughout the entire military system and exposing deep fractures long hidden within the CCP's ruling apparatus. On February 4th, the CCP broke with convention by convening an emergency supplementary session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, NPC, in Beijing. Contrary to expectations, the outcome was a reversal. The NPC did not strip Zhang of his delegate status, nor did it revoke that of Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's Joint Staff Department, who had fallen from power at the same time. Observers believe that Xi Jinping intended to use the NPC mechanism to legitimize the arrests of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, but encountered resistance within the core of the institutional system itself. Under Article 74 of the Constitution and the law on the organization of the NPC, deputies may not be arrested, detained, or prosecuted during their term without the approval of the NPC Standing Committee. This was not a procedural oversight, but a deliberate halt. An instance of soft resistance directly confronting Xi's will. Pro-democracy activist Tang Baiqiao posted on the X platform that, according to his sources within the CCP, several Politburo members at a recent meeting openly questioned the legitimacy of arresting Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli and called for corrections, an appeal that reportedly gained support from others present. This procedural bottleneck became a rare challenge to Xi's absolute authority from within the system itself. On February 2nd, Foreign Affairs published an article titled Xi the Destroyer, co-authored by Jonathan A. Sin, a Brookings Institution researcher and former CIA China analyst, and John Culver, a former senior CIA intelligence officer. The article noted that within the U.S. intelligence community, Xi is privately referred to as the Destroyer, a label reflecting his ruthless and extreme purge tactics. By publicly sidelining Zhang Youxia, Xi laid bare a defining feature of his political style. No one is safe, not even those once regarded as his closest allies. The article emphasized that Xi's deep distrust of the military is the core driver behind his political maneuvers. U.S. economist Li Hengqing commented that when a national leader is evaluated in such a mocking tone, it signals profound contempt. He noted that since Xi took power in 2012, military purges have accelerated dramatically, with around 300 senior officers removed. Of the 81 generals promoted by Xi in 2023, 14 have already been officially dismissed and at least 25 others implicated in scandals. Today, among the seven CMC members elected at the CCP's 20th National Congress, only Xi and Zhang Shengmin, the official in charge of discipline, are widely seen as remaining secure. Cheng Qitong, assistant research fellow at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, observed that the sweeping purges reflect Xi's deep insecurity and his ambition to extend his rule into the CCP's 21st National Congress in 2027. According to Cheng, the PLA's top command has been nearly wiped out, raising the risk of paralysis during the transition period. In practice, Zhang Youxia's role as the key coordinator of military power has been neutralized. Yet the CCP has issued no official statement on the operational status of the CMC. With Zhang Youxia long regarded as a moderating voice in military decision-making, particularly on Taiwan, removed, rational restraint has weakened while risk-taking tendencies have grown. Xi's vision of unification with Taiwan remains unchanged. Amid a slowing economy, rising social discontent, and escalating political instability, concentrating the entire system around one man's will carries immense danger. History shows that dictators often spiral deeper into paranoia, and it is precisely in such moments that internal forces for change may awaken. This episode is not merely a snapshot of a power struggle. It signals a potential turning point in an era, suggesting that China may be approaching profound transformation. China's sixth-generation fighter exposes critical flaws, requiring at least 10 more years for a technological breakthrough. Over the past five years, China's official narrative has repeatedly praised the induction of the J-20 stealth fighter, claiming it had terrified the United States. The launch of the Fujian aircraft carrier was portrayed as a historic breakthrough drawing global attention, and hypersonic missiles were promoted as weapons that would dominate the future battlefield. Together, these images constructed a picture of rapidly rising military power. However, in February 2026, a rare in-depth analytical report published by Maritime Vanguard, a Chinese media outlet with close ties to the military establishment, revealed a reality starkly different from the official narrative. According to the report, China's sixth-generation fighter program, codenamed South-6, is facing fundamental technical bottlenecks. The aircraft's design has exceeded original assumptions, forcing engineers to adopt an unconventional three-engine configuration, a choice almost unheard of in modern stealth supersonic fighters. More critically, South-6 is unable to operate from the Fujian aircraft carrier, the Type 003 carrier recently launched with an electromagnetic catapult system. The report bluntly acknowledged that overcoming these problems would require at least another 10 years. A deeper examination reveals a systemic breakdown spanning basic material science, top-level design, and supply chain management. A telling example is China's flagship civilian airliner, the COMAC C919, which still relies on the LEAP-1C engine produced by the U.S.-French joint venture, CFM International. In civil aviation, engine lifespan, fuel efficiency, and reliability are non-negotiable metrics. If these standards cannot be met domestically, imports are unavoidable. This raises a fundamental question. If China cannot yet produce a civilian engine that meets the world's strictest requirements, expecting military engines to suddenly achieve dramatic performance breakthroughs is scientifically illogical. At an expanded meeting of China's Military Discipline Inspection Commission in January 2026, a corruption scandal involving 28 billion yuan, approximately 3.9 billion U.S. dollars, in equipment development funds was exposed. The consequences are visible in the hardware itself. Substandard special alloys, inferior sealing rings, and excessive tolerances in aviation bolts. Sources close to Air Force logistics report that the downtime rates of the J-20 and J-16 are far higher than officially acknowledged. Failures often stem not from core systems but from small components, leaking hydraulic pipes, loosened avionics interfaces, and microscopic cracks in engine blades. The report also highlights the cascading effects of U.S. technology sanctions. A sixth-generation fighter It is a flying supercomputer, processing enormous volumes of sensor data and coordinating loyal wingman drones. While the United States employs 3-5 nm chips with high efficiency and low heat output, China is forced to rely on 7-14 nm domestic processes. To match computing power, more chips must be stacked, generating excessive heat, requiring heavy cooling systems, increasing aircraft weight, reducing fuel space, and ultimately forcing designers to enlarge the airframe and add engines. This vicious cycle produced a 40-plus-ton aircraft with an infrared signature so large that its stealth advantages are severely compromised. The impact extends to China's carrier fleet. The Fujian was designed around medium-sized aircraft such as the J-15 and J-35. The enlarged South 6 may not even fit on the carrier's elevators, forcing one-by-one handling and sharply reducing operational tempo. Moreover, a three-engine fighter dramatically increases fuel consumption, potentially cutting the carrier's sustained air operations from seven days to just three or four, making the entire fleet more dependent on vulnerable supply ships. Meanwhile, the adversary China would face between 2027 and 2030 is not a peer force. But the U.S. military equipped with mass-produced B-21 stealth bombers, the forthcoming NGAD air dominance system, and thousands of unmanned combat drones. While the United States has already entered the era of AI-enabled operations, drone swarms, and wideband stealth, South 6 remains trapped by basic engineering constraints. The strategic implications are significant. Many analysts believe Chinese leadership once viewed 2027, the 100th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army, as a milestone for achieving the capability to attack Taiwan. In that vision, the sixth-generation fighter was meant to be the technological door kicker. But if South 6 cannot become operational until 2035, the PLA will be forced to rely on the J-20 to confront the full U.S. military system during the high-risk window of 2027 to 2030. Maritime Vanguard's report is therefore not just a technical critique, but a systemic autopsy. It demonstrates how bureaucracy, formalism, and entrenched corruption have turned a flagship great power project into a dead end. If China cannot reform its rigid top-down system, then even 20 years from now, it will still be unable to produce a powerful, durable indigenous engine, let alone in 10. Year-end nears. Beijing, flooded with police's industries, collapse. Even the poorest can't find leftovers to scavenge. Shanghai, also buckling as a pre-lunar New Year depression hits. The Chinese New Year is fast approaching. But this year, instead of the familiar atmosphere of bustling shopping and joyful reunion, many major Chinese cities are shrouded in a sense of coldness and despair. The economy continues to stagnate, jobs are becoming increasingly scarce, and consumer activity has nearly frozen. Cities once promoted as engines of growth are now visibly drained, right down to the social bedrock. In Beijing, officials still speak of a city with more than 20 million residents. Yet once you step onto the streets, the first impression is not congestion, but emptiness. Areas that used to be synonymous with crowds, such as the Guomao overpass during rush hour, are now so quiet that people joke you could go jogging there in the evening peak. Even the hutongs, once filled with elderly residents taking evening walks, now feel deserted. Ordinary people are asking a blunt question. If Beijing's population is still stable, as the statistics claim, then where have all the people gone? Many Beijing residents admit openly that this is no longer about how to celebrate the new year, but about whether one can survive at all. In the past, restaurants were everywhere, crowds were dense, and even leftovers were plentiful. So much so that the poorest could still scavenge food to get by. Today, eateries are shutting down one after another, and even leftovers have disappeared. That reality sends a stark signal. The bottom of society has already hit rock bottom. Unemployment has become the greatest source of anxiety as the year draws to a close. It is not only full-time jobs that are hard to find. Even temporary, or day labor, has nearly vanished. Some people say bitterly that now, even to work as a food delivery rider, companies scrutinize your background three generations back. Meanwhile, mortgages and car loans continue to come due every month without mercy. Many people feel pushed to the brink, and the entire society is filled with suppressed frustration and despair. One particularly shocking detail is the disappearance of young people. Over the past five years, Beijing has lost roughly 1.85 million residents aged between 25 and 40, the equivalent of a mid-sized city simply evaporating. By the end of 2024, Beijing's permanent population stood at about 21.83 million, with birth and death rates nearly equal, while the number of residents over 60 continued to rise. Beijing is no longer young. And more importantly, it is losing the very population that consumes, works, and sustains the system. The wave of store closures throughout 2025 has laid bare the collapse of the real economy. Strikingly, it is not only sectors threatened by e-commerce that are falling apart, but even industries long considered basic necessities. Among the hardest hit are hair salons and beauty shops. When even haircuts, something everyone needs, can no longer survive, it becomes impossible to blame everything on online shopping. The reasons are painfully clear. Rents are sky high, competition has devolved into self-destruction, and service prices are forced ever lower. Shop owners work themselves to exhaustion, only to realize that a full day's revenue is still not enough to cover rent. Each additional day of operation simply means another day of losses. Some once-thriving commercial districts now resemble ghost towns. In complexes covering tens of thousands of square meters, 70-80% of storefronts stand empty. Along entire streets, only a handful of businesses struggle to hold on. Shopping centers that were once impossible to get into are now bleak beyond recognition. This is not just a Beijing phenomenon. In Shanghai, once hailed as the magic city and the pearl of the Orient, the strain is becoming impossible to hide. Housing prices continue to slide, jobs are increasingly difficult to find, and storefronts are closing in waves. Videos show airports and city centers at midday with only a scattering of people, scenes that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Shanghai residents admit bluntly that this is no longer the city they once knew. Salaries have been cut again and again, while job opportunities shrink. Even positions paying around 6,000 yuan are now flooded with graduates from elite universities and overseas returnees. Night markets and shopping streets that were once buzzing with life have gone cold and silent. Many small business owners have been forced to shut down and pack up for their hometowns. Some have mortgaged their homes and cars, yet still fail to survive. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed continues to grow, but rent, loan payments, and daily living costs have not dropped by a single yuan. As some put it plainly, this isn't just hardship anymore, there's no room left to breathe. Figures circulating widely online have further shocked the public. In 2025 alone, an estimated 15 million businesses across China shut down. Around 3 million were in the food and beverage sector, while approximately 380,000 were hair and beauty businesses. These numbers include only normal deregistrations, not bankruptcies or forced liquidations. Pessimism has also spread to large corporations. Throughout 2025, many publicly listed companies laid off large numbers of long-serving employees. Some insiders admit that when an industry declines, companies can only save themselves. Businesses are not charities, even more alarming, many employees who manage to keep their jobs have lost year-end bonuses and performance evaluations altogether. In a year as grim as this, one question hangs heavily in the air for countless workers. Will there be any year-end bonuses at all? And more fundamentally, as jobs disappear, shops close, young people leave, and the elderly remain behind, what exactly is the so-called stability being built upon? South Koreans shout at Chinese tourists, the Communist Party is destroying China. On February 6th, a video that has shocked public opinion began circulating widely on social media. In the footage, a young South Korean woman is seen speaking Mandarin and shouting directly at Chinese tourists on the street, down with the Communist Party. The Communist Party is destroying China. Only without the Chinese Communist Party can there be a new China? The video shows a group of South Korean citizens marching along a city street. A young woman wearing a pink jacket holds a microphone and without hesitation or ambiguity, speaks loudly in standard Mandarin to Chinese tourists standing nearby. Another young woman in the march immediately joins in shouting, down with the Communist Party. The confrontation did not stop at slogans. The South Korean woman also openly raised the issue of the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, telling the Chinese tourists, do you know what happened on June 4th, 1989? Go online and look it up for yourselves. The exact time and location of the video remain unclear. However, within a short period of time, the clip was widely reposted across multiple social media platforms. Chinese pro-democracy activist Jia Li Jian, based in the United States, also shared the video on X, writing that global anti-communism has already become an unstoppable trend. In recent years, opposition to the Chinese Communist Party has continued to grow within South Korean civil society. This sentiment is no longer limited to political demonstrations or online discussions, but has increasingly appeared in everyday public life. In Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, a Chinese-Korean restaurant known as Destroy the Communist Party Restaurant has unexpectedly gone viral on social media. The establishment was previously called Beijing Restaurant. Its owner, originally from mainland China, officially renamed the restaurant in 2025, openly declaring his political stance. The restaurant's menu has drawn widespread attention for its blunt and confrontational dish names, including Destroy the CCP Black Bean Noodles and Eliminate the Communist Bandits Fried Rice. In a widely circulated video, the owner is seen delivering the restaurant's signature dish while loudly shouting in Korean that the Republic of Korea is a nation opposed to communism, urging diners never to forget their roots and calling on everyone to shout Destroy the CCP together. Inside the restaurant, diners respond in unison, shouting Destroy the CCP. The related videos have continued to spread rapidly across South Korean social media, with many netizens leaving short but telling comments such as I'm definitely going there. Your feedback matters. Share your views in the comments. If this content resonated with you, we invite you to share it with your network. Your continued support empowers us to pursue independent, high-quality journalism. Subscribe and like to stay up to date with Decoding China. Thank you for watching.