Xi Stayed in Beijing for 3 Months — The PLA Signals He Can’t Ignore

According to state media, after inspecting Guangzhou in November, which was November 7th to the 8th of 2025, Xi has not left Beijing from November 9th all the way to February 12th. That's three full months. He hasn't even gone abroad once. However, in the previous two years around the Chinese New Year, or right around the Western New Year, and the Chinese New Year, Xi Jinping has not left Beijing for three, four months. Whereas in the past years, this is his busy time for travel. This is the time that he was constantly traveling and inspecting military units across the country. So why hasn't he left Beijing this time? Well, the answer is simple, in my opinion. He doesn't dare to leave because he isn't in total control. Now, after Zhang Yuxia was taken down, Xi's first public appearance came on February the 6th, when he attended a Chinese New Year gala hosted by the CMC, the Central Military Commission, for retired PLA officers in Beijing. You see, Zhang Shengming is walking right behind him, but the guy looks very cautious and careful. Look at the distance between Xi Jinping and Zhang Shengming. His face was tense. He trailed behind Xi Jinping and kept his distance. Everyone looks not relaxed at all. Look at Zhang Shengming's expression. Okay, let me pause for a second. If you look carefully at the footage I just played, you will also see many young people in uniform present. They're clearly not retired PLA officers. These are believed to be security personnel, Xi Jinping's personal bodyguards. So they're circled in blue in the screenshots. Take a look at them in these pictures. Now, there's another detail. The current defense minister, Dong Jun, also attended the gala, but his seat was three rows behind Xi. He was not seated in the same row as Zhang Shengming did. So the hierarchy was very clear. Now, just days later, on February the 11th, Xi Jinping, still in Beijing, conducted his traditional New Year military inspection by video from the PLA building. Now, this is normally, typically an annual event when the CMC chairman travels to frontline units in person. But this time, Xi Jinping stayed inside in a heavily guarded building and spoke to the army, navy, air force, cyber force, the aerospace force through a teleprompter or through a screen. And the CCTV footage was bizarre. If you look at, this is from the CCTV footage. It shows this massive hall, and there were only three tables. Xi sat at the main table. On the two side tables sat Zhang Shengming and the other person is Dong Jun. Now, like I said, Dong Jun isn't a CMC member. At the previous gala event I mentioned, he sat three rows behind Xi Jinping. Now he's suddenly placed at the same level as Zhang Shengming, not because he got promoted, but because without him, Zhang Shengming would have been the only general sitting with Xi, and that would have looked very, very lonely. So they propped Dong Jun up as visual balance to make this look a little reasonable. The room looked extremely empty. The scene felt eerie. It was like the entire PLA leadership had been reduced to three people staring at a screen. And in Xi Jinping's remarks, he said the past year was highly unusual. Yes, indeed. He praised the military for being revolutionarily tempered through anti-corruption and insisted that officers, especially grassroots troops, were absolutely reliable and politically solid. And people noticed that he said that, he didn't mention the officers. He just said that the grassroots troops are absolutely reliable and politically solid, sort of implying the non-grassroot ones, the officers, are not. Anyways, but this language means one thing. The purge isn't over yet. Anyone could be next. Now, what I must tell you, in CCP or PLA's own tradition, the chairman visits the frontline units before every Chinese New Year. And that has been the case for Xi Jinping from 2013 to 2022. Now, for example, last year, in 2025, he inspected the Northern Theater Command in Shen Yun and Zhang Youxia was with him. And then in the year before, in 2024, he visited troops in Tianjin with He Weidong, who has now fallen. And the only time he used video was in 2023, during the nationwide COVID outbreak or outbreaks. Remember in December, 2022, and then into January and February of 2023, the entire China was in a lockdown mode because it was all over, it was crazy. So that was the only time when he used video. Every year since he came to power, he visits or he has been visiting the troops right before the Lunar New Year. So why in 2026 did Xi Jinping refuse to go to the troops at all? Well, because he's afraid of his own military. After arresting Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, Xi broke a longstanding tradition. He hid inside headquarters, he inspected readiness virtually, he offered holiday greetings through a screen. A military of millions now looks like it has only a bear commander. So this level of dread is unprecedented since the CCP built its party, its army, and its regime. Think about how strange this looks, right? Xi had just taken down a CMC vice chairman and effectively blown up the Central Military Commission. By normal logic, this is when a leader would appear confident, in control, and secure in his power. And this is the time he want to be with his troops to show that he is in control. This is the time he wants to meet with as many military leaders as possible just to quickly put his hands on the void left behind by the two generals. But instead, he didn't dare to show up in front of the troops. And he doesn't, and also he doesn't have anyone to send as a stand-in to perform the usual political theater. So that giant hall with only three people watching the screen says everything. So if you want to know whether Xi Jinping really has the situation under control, don't just look at troop movements or bodyguards. Look at who's being allowed back into the spotlight and who that person used to be connected to. And that brings us to something that on the surface looks like an entertainment news, but it's not. In reality, it's a very loud political signal. And the person they choose to bring back is someone who was once politically dangerous. And now we enter the part about a seductress. Her name is Tang Can. So Ms. Tang was once dubbed China's most famous, or the one and only military seductress. She was said to have taken down more generals in bedrooms than many did on the battlefield. And now she's back. In recent days, news went viral that Ms. Tang Can, who is a folk singer who was tied to Xi Jinping's biggest political enemy during his early years as the CCP leader, aka the Bo Xilai, Zhou Yongkang coup circle, this guy and together with Zhou Yongkang planned a coup to bring Xi Jinping down. And this guy was actually Xi Jinping's biggest political enemy at the time. So the woman, the very woman who's tied to Xi Jinping's biggest political enemy who were plotting a coup against him has made a high profile comeback on the CCTV New Year Gala. Even though it's not a CCTV's main New Year Gala, the story still spread and kept getting louder and louder. Multiple CC, what'd I say, Chinese state media outlets have now confirmed it. So according to official reports, when the performance list was released, Ms. Tang Can's name was placed first. That alone is unusual. Her picture appears on the poster of the event. So no matter how you look at it, this is strange. Why? Well, she was intimately involved with several of Xi Jinping's political enemies in the military and in politics. And back then, the saying was that there was a whole row of generals involved with her. Beyond the sex scandals, there were also reports linking her to, like I said, the political coup against Xi Jinping. And she was said to have close personal ties with the individuals in the coup. And some people even said that she might have acted as a go-between person in that coup plan. Later, Ms. Tang Can was secretly sentenced to seven years in prison and sent to a woman's prison in Hubei. Sources close to the prison told mainland Chinese media that she was held under an alias. The name she used was Zou Yan. And the public information was that Zou Yan was serving a prison term on economic crime charges. Those sources also said that she behaved very well in prison so received a sentence reduction, and she was released in 2016. Where she went after that is unclear. When she was taken down, there were whispers inside CCP's political circles that Xi Jinping's wife had a hand in it. Madam Xi and Ms. Tang Can came from the same folk singing lineage, and they were longtime rivals competing for the top folk singer title. On top of that, Ms. Tang's ties to the political faction meant to bring down Madam Xi's husband. So the street rumor was simple. Madam Xi saw this woman not only as a personal rival, but also as a public enemy. And so Madam Xi was involved in bringing down this singer. Now, these rumors cannot be proved, but one thing is widely accepted. This woman is politically radioactive when it comes to Xi Jinping and his wife. So people say there's a seesaw dynamic between Madam Xi and this woman. When Xi Jinping's wife rises, Ms. Tang Can falls. When Madam Xi loses ground, Ms. Tang Can reappears. That is why this comeback is so revealing. This doesn't look like a fallen star finds redemption story. It looks arranged. So the gala she appeared on is not the top tier CCTV New Year's Eve show, but it's still produced with the CCTV network and broadcast on official platforms with real reach and strict political vetting. And that's the key point. Someone like her linked to a coup once with a criminal record and with a toxic reputation should not, under normal CCP rules, be allowed on a core party media platform. Yet not only did she appear, she was pushed as the headliner. The official poster, the one you're looking at, used her image. And in the staged photos that got leaked, she stood dead center in the lineup. And even her dress was different from everyone else. And that's not accidental. So put this in context, right after Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli were taken down, Ms. Tang has long been labeled as part of the anti-Xi camp. Even though she's just a singer, she's tied to major political cases. And her sudden high-profile return to CCTV platforms does not look like a director getting creative on a whim. If she didn't have serious backing and political reason behind this comeback, no producer would take this kind of risk, especially in today's political climate. What does that tell us? It's very simple. Xi Jinping does not have the game fully locked down. Pushing this singer back onto official platforms, people inside the system are basically sending a strong message. We can still embarrass you in public. You don't control everything.