Something Strange Has Happened in Xi's Beijing

It's a pleasure to speak to you again. How are you? Good. I'm doing well. How are you? Good. I'm actually excited for this conversation. I remember last time we chatted was about the meeting now infamous meeting between Trump and she was the biggest thing of the year. Such a massive event. It came, it went, and everyone just forgotten about it. Literally nothing came out of it whatsoever. That's true. And here we are. What I really enjoy about this conversation is when I speak, I speak to a lot of people that are very critical of where the U.S. is at. And for good reason. The American debt is higher than it's ever been. The military munitions are depleted. The economy is not doing too well. Politically, there's all these issues and lobbying groups that have too much influence. The country's always at war. The list goes on and on and on. And political polarization. But then what they do is they talk about how China's that stable country where everything's going perfect. They're doing incredibly well. Nothing's going wrong. And I know this is, it's hard to believe that when there's like a purge of all the major generals and the main, the most important person, the people's liberation army, that was a few months ago. And then when I had the conversation with you a few weeks ago now, you started, you knew so much, number one, and number two, you just gave us a deep dive into, let's say certain red flags in the CCP in China that people are not talking about. And also because China's really good at keeping secrets. They don't have the freedom of speech and freedom of information that we have in the West. So I'm excited for this conversation. I'd love to kind of get your thoughts. I'll keep it broad first. What would you say are the things, I'd say the cracks showing within the CCP or some of the question marks that you've found in the last few weeks and months? Well, there's so many signs of cracks already. I would say the biggest one is political stability because China, I mean, the CCP is planning for its biggest political event every five years, which is the 21st Party Congress next year. And then now you have a leader who's 73 years old, who's not very healthy, who doesn't have a successor, and who is not very popular right now. So all different factions within the CCP are now fighting for the opportunity next year to do something about it. And Xi Jinping is certainly trying to hold on to power and rule indefinitely. So that's the background situation that we're facing right now. And in terms of the cracks, OK, cracks, number one, Xi Jinping disappeared and reappeared. And so was his defense minister who disappeared and then suddenly reappeared. And both the disappearances and the reappearances are kind of odd, if not interesting. So before we get into the disappearance and reappearance, you said he's not healthy. And so he has no successor. I think it's widely known there's no successor. I don't think it's like a hidden secret. The two that surprised me from what you said is that he's not healthy and he's not very popular. Can you tell me more about that? What indications do we have that he's not healthy? Is it any serious health issues? Oh, there has been so many rumors about his health problems in the past, I would say, five years. I mean, one noticeable sign is at these CCP meetings, every leader has a cup placed in front of them for water, for water replenishment. But Xi Jinping has two cups. And so people have been curious, well, what's in the other cup? And more and more people believe that it's medicine, some form of a liquid medication that he needs to take from time to time because these CCP meetings go on for a day, a full day. So he can't sit there without his medication. Also, there are rumors that he suffered a stroke two summers ago because he disappeared for 21 days. And even when he reappeared, many people did not believe that the person who actually appeared was really him. And there are people who believe that it was his body double. And he does seem to walk wobbly from time to time. And those are signs of symptoms of a stroke. And there are also rumors of cancer. There are all sorts of ailments that I don't really know and I can't really elaborate. But the firm evidence was he did disappear for extensive time when the rumors about a stroke was going wild. And there was even a picture. And when he did appear, he was receiving the visiting Vietnamese leader. And the CCP avoided all close up shots. They only released wide shots. But the Vietnamese news agency released a close up shot from the side. And it did show that a patch of his hair was missing in the back. So that sort of proved that he suffered some kind of medical. He had a medical episode that required a procedure. Yeah, I'm going to show that photo. I don't know the part on him having two cups. I'm into biohacking. And I know he's deep into longevity. He was speaking to Putin about it. Maybe it could have been like something, his supplements or something to do with longevity that he takes along with water. And also that patch on this hair. I don't know. I saw it as well. Just thinking now, I had a patch as well. Because what I would do for hair loss is I would. So that's the patch there. What I would do is I would have like, they would shave an area here. And then they would dig in and take, I think, stem cells or something and then inject them here to make sure I don't lose hair as I age, because I do a lot of these treatments as well. But the disappearance for 21 days, that one is a bizarre one. That was when approximately that he disappeared for 21 days. That was summer of 2024. We were in 2026. So that was during the third plenum, CCP's third plenum of the 2020th Party Congress. And he disappeared. And when he did reappear, it was when he went to the Vietnamese consulate or embassy to pay tribute to the deceased Vietnamese leader. And then he left a signature he signed in the book, the guest book. I studied the signature. It did not look like Xi Jinping's signature. Was there any explanation on why he disappeared for 21 days? The widely accepted or suspected reason was a stroke. But he never gave a reason. His office never gave a reason. Oh, no, that's, you know, the leader's health is top state secret. You never say anything. If any of his medical, anyone on his medical team ever released anything, they could lose everything and even their lives. If they ever released that, it's top state secret. And that's, but that's separate too. Is that the same one? Because you said then she and the defense minister disappeared and reappeared. Is that the same instance of 21 days or a different one? No, that's recent. That's the last two weeks. Because what I told you about the 21 day disappearance was two years ago. But this year, just from May 25th to now. Well, let's talk about his defense minister, Dong Jun. OK, he did not appear at the event to welcome his counterpart from Pakistan. The Pakistani defense minister, General Asim Munir, visited China. And Dong Jun, as the defense minister, did not participate in any of the events welcoming his counterpart. That was odd. And then he also missed a high profile PLA meeting that glorified Xi Jinping thoughts. And the most bizarre was the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore, which took place from the 29th to the 31st in May. And he missed that. He attended in 24, but he missed it in 25 and 26. So people ask what happened to the defense minister? You know, if it's one event, it's explainable. But he missed three events within that window of time. So people ask what has happened to him. And then miraculously, he reappeared. Because on June the 2nd, the defense ministry announced that the minister visited South Africa on June 1st. Now, it was a retroactive announcement. It was not, you know, like, it's like, OK, we need to say something about the minister. People, the whole world is wondering what has happened to him. So on June 2nd, the ministry announced the minister was in South Africa on June 1st. So all of this, you know, it does not look like it's a normal, how to say, trail of events. And that's, but that's, so that's in the meanwhile, did Xi also disappear for a period of time in those two weeks? Xi Jinping was last seen on May the 25th, when he received the visiting Serbian leader Vučić. Is that how you say it? Vučić met him. He was in China? He was in China. And so Xi Jinping received him, welcomed him. So that was the 25th of May. And then Xi Jinping has not been seen. Now, you know, as the head of state, he is visible almost daily, you know. So when he was gone for 11 days, people were curious what has happened to him. Now, there are also rumors, okay? Someone credible leaked a rumor saying that Xi Jinping suffered a catastrophic blow on June, I'm sorry, on May the 26th, without giving more details. So people were asking, well, was it a health? Did he suffer another stroke? Or was it a political setback? But then people were counting, you know, nine days, 10 days, 11 days. So he reappeared today because he had to. The Laotian leader, what's his name, Tang Long, is in Beijing. So Xi Jinping came out, received him. But there's something weird about the Xinhua's coverage. This kind of state- Xinhua is a Chinese news agency. Yeah, yeah, the state news, you know, they just published a very short announcement with no picture, no video. Just say Xi Jinping conducted a welcome ceremony for the head of state from Laos with no picture at four o'clock in the afternoon. Now, this kind of ceremony always takes place like in the morning, followed by a bilateral meeting, right? Just to give you a comparison, when President Trump visited China, Xinhua released pictures at 9.23 a.m. in the morning. So we saw nothing. So people kept asking why, why did they not release any videos, any pictures until I think seven o'clock that evening. I did see a two-minute segment from Xinhua News in the primetime news. So they actually showed the video. But all of this, you know, is kind of unnecessary, right? Why such a... It's almost as if the Xinhua News Agency wasn't sure how to cover this state visit. They were waiting for instructions from higher-ups. That's why they didn't release any photos. When they released it, did he seem fine, the footage that they released? It was two minutes. He seemed fine in the two-minute video. You think it was a health scare or something else? What do you think it is? I think it's more of a major political setback. I really think health... Because if you look at other events that's happening, I think Xi Jinping probably is in a major survival mode. To hold on to power. Because the monthly Politburo meeting for May was not reported by Xinhua. And this is supposed to be the highest-ranking political meeting for the regime that takes place once every month. It always takes place at the end of the month. And there's dead silence about whether or not this meeting took place in May. Now, every time when this kind of silence happened in the past, we knew something was wrong. Because if you look at the history, every time when Xinhua went silent on the Politburo meeting, something major happened the following month. Let me just give you the examples. In 2023, also in May, the meeting was not reported. And then in June that year, Xi Jinping's foreign minister, Qin Gang, fell. Remember the foreign minister who had an affair with a TV news anchor? No, I don't remember. It was all over. The foreign minister was having an affair and had a child with this news anchor who is believed to be a double agent, working for both the CCP and foreign governments. That's just how the rumors go. Which governments? Western governments. It could be the US, it could be the UK, because she studied in the UK. Yeah, she went to Cambridge University. Okay, so the foreign minister had an affair with her and he was obviously fired from the CCP? He fell. He was taken down in June. Fell as in was taken out of the CCP? He was kicked out. Yeah, he was no longer in power. So that was in 2023. And then in 2024, there was no Politburo meeting announcement in November. And then that month, or in the following months, one of Xi Jinping's most important ally in the military was sacked. That's Miao Hua, General Miao Hua, who... Is that the main guy in the military or different? Different. This guy heads up personnel and political vetting process for all promotions within the military. So he's basically the guy who makes sure that everyone Xi Jinping puts into position is loyal to him. And that guy fell in the following month. And then last year, there was a break in Xinhua's report in May. And then in the following months, there was a new organization that was established. It's called the Central Committee's Coordination and Decision-Making Body. That was announced in the month of June. And what that body is, basically people say, is like the supervisory body on top of Xi Jinping to make sure all the major decisions that he made was going to be... It was kind of a check and balance mechanism put in place to oversee Xi Jinping. So that happened in June. So every time... Sorry, there's a checks and balances to oversee Xi Jinping? Yeah, it's formally announced. It's called the Central Committee's Coordination and Decision-Making Body. This is made up of party elders. Yeah, this is not official. But there's... So I've always been under the impression that Xi Jinping controls the entire structure of the CCP. And anyone that's out of line is out. We saw this. We saw multiple purges years ago. You're saying there's a body that's overseeing Xi Jinping? Yeah. If you study the announcement from June last year, it's an organization made up of party elders, retired party elders who are still very powerful in the system. People call that China's sleep state. Xi Jinping allowed for that entity to exist? How did they manage to set it up? How is he okay with it? Because they don't have like Congress... Some entity like Congress there that sets those up? How does it work? Who set up that entity? Because he lost... Because when he suffered a stroke, when he had the health episode, he lost control of the military. Zhang Youxia, his vice chairman of CMC took control of the military. And that's whoever controls the military controls the regime. And so when the military, when his vice chairman of CMC aligned himself with the party elders, Xi Jinping effectively no longer has absolute control. But I thought Xi Jinping purged a lot of members of the military, all the top generals. That's a mystery. Yes, you're right. Xi Jinping did purge a lot of people. But all the purges, they were carried out by both Xi Jinping and his enemies. So we attributed all the purges to Xi Jinping, which is massive. But in reality, he did not purge every one of them. Some of them were purged by him. Some of them were purged by his opponents. That's why it's so massive. I didn't even... To be honest, I didn't even know Xi Jinping had opponents. Oh, he has, he has. And they have influence in the CCP? Because the CCP is a regime that thrives on power struggles, on revolution. If everything goes on smoothly, this regime will not survive. So by nature, it needs internal struggle. It needs an enemy to survive. It needs to have internal enemy and external enemy to survive. That's just the nature of the beast. Because the communist revolutionary theory, the class struggle, that's what communism is all about. If the world is at peace, the CCP will feel miserable. How much control do you think Xi Jinping has over the CCP, over China? Okay, right now, Xi Jinping... I do not believe Xi Jinping controls the military, okay? He does not control personnel decision or organization. He's lost the control of the organizational department to the party elders, or to that organization I told you about. He partially controls a very powerful organization called Discipline and Inspection Committee. That's the organization that uses the anti-corruption investigation to bring down officials. It's like a disciplinary action committee that monitors all officials. But it's really just a political tool to take down your opponents. He does not have full control of that organization. And then he still controls the diplomatic apparatus. So a lot of the foreign policies are still under his control. He still controls the propaganda department. He still controls the decisions over the economy. And he still controls the security apparatus, public security, state security. But you don't think he controls the military? Not the military, not the military. But isn't the military the most important one? The leader that controls the military controls the country, is generally how countries work. I mean, one example to prove that he doesn't control the military is, he took down his vice chairman, Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli, the chief of the Joint Staff Department. So his two highest ranking military commanders in the military. So far, he has not been effective. Xi Jinping has not been effective in removing these people's political positions. They're still delegates to National People's Congress. Because these people wear many hats. They have all the other titles that they wear. None of their other titles are being removed. Even their vice chairman, his vice chairman of the CMC is still, last that I heard, is still listed on the CMC's website. So even though he removed them, these people are still officially holding these positions. And no military commanders have voiced any support for Xi Jinping's decision in removing those military leaders. And this is utter embarrassment to a CCP leader. Because anytime they make a decision, you see the whole bureaucracy pledge allegiance to the top leader's wise decision. But in this case, nothing. Dead silence. What does that tell you? It's like a black box for people on the outside, by the way. China's like this black box with a dragon inside. That's exact. If you go by the official narratives, the official announcement, the press release, you're going to be misled. You have to study what's not said. You have to study the pattern just to find the missing links. Then you could piece together the puzzles. Yeah. Was there reports of any mysterious explosions? Oh, yeah. China has seen so many explosions in the last month. I mean, the most famous ones are the one on, it was a firecracker factory explosion that took place on May 4th in Hunan province. It was so massive that windows from two kilometers away were blown away. It was a firecracker factory, factories that make firecrackers. So people suspect that it was not a normal accident. It looks like something that was. Is that the one a month ago? In May 4th. But the consequences of that was the provincial leader of Hunan, where the explosion took place, was rumored to succeed one of Xi Jinping's loyalists, the minister of public security, Wang Xiaofeng. So here you have a guy who is widely believed to replace, to be the next minister of public security. All of a sudden his home province has this major explosion. Yeah, that's the one. That does not look like a normal accident because it's massive. It's massive. And the official explanation was it was a firecracker explosion. Yeah, that's the firecracker factory. Yeah. But people believe it was set off on purpose. And the reason is to prevent the provincial leader from being promoted to become China's next police chief. Because the provincial leader of Hubei is not considered a Xi Jinping loyalist. But the person he is going to replace is a Xi Jinping loyalist. So people believe that this is a play by Xi Jinping's people to stop this guy's political future. Can I ask you a question? So in Russia, okay, I'll use that as an example, because you hear rumors, rumors, rumors of power struggle, this, this and that. And I remember I was doing an interview with Imran Khan talking about Pakistan's prime minister. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, I get reports of explosions and Prigozhin talking about him being attacked by the Russian army. I'm like, what? It just literally came out of nowhere. That's someone deep into politics. And then suddenly, Prigozhin is marching towards Moscow. What's funny is that these things, what happens is that it also reminds you of the mutiny in Turkey as well, the coup d'etat in Turkey. But talking about the one in Russia, because I covered that very extensively, it's like it's all fine until it's not. Out of nowhere, things just kind of unravel and just collapse. And suddenly we had Putin leaving the Kremlin and the Wagner marching to just a few kilometers away from Moscow that no one expected, no one anticipated. It's not something, it's like from everything's fine, everything's peaceful to within 24 hours, will Putin survive this? What's going to happen to the nuclear weapons, et cetera? Is that a possibility for China? Because China does seem like a very stable country. But then again, so does Russia. You never hear about protests in Russia either. So is Iran. People even believe Iran is very stable right now. So those people who believe Iran, Russia, and China are very stable right now, I didn't really need to think about. China just feels, I don't know. I never see videos of protests on the people on the streets in China, or I just don't feel like this is a place where you have an army on the street. But is that a real risk, they can have a Wagner-like event in China? It's happening every day on a smaller scale. The reason you're not seeing it is because China has this formidable digital surveillance apparatus that are relying on facial recognition technology and big data to prevent you from seeing them. Not only you and I don't see it, even Chinese, they are not aware that there is a protest happening five blocks away from them because it's deleted, it's not allowed. The CCP has used its massive resources to build this digital surveillance apparatus to delete all the protests, all the noises. They have scrubbed the internet clean, so we don't hear anything. So you're saying there is protest or there's a lot of resistance in China to the CCP? There is protest in China every day. If you go, there are acts every day. If you follow, there's a channel called Li Laoshi, there's a person, I believe he's based in Europe, and he has been posting all sorts of public disobedience, protests from China every day. You see them every day breaking out in China. What's his name? I might know, I might actually ask KK now, my producer, because I interviewed someone that might be him, who's a dissident who has a big, does he have a big YouTube channel or no? I think he's our ex. He's based in Italy, I believe. I believe he's based in Italy. The one I interviewed was from the US, it was a while ago. So you're saying there is protest in China, but you won't, is at least the system solid? We might see power struggles at the top, but from the system itself, is that the institutions, et cetera, those are pretty solid in the country. Is that fair to assume? What's your definition of being solid? Good question. We won't see them unravel, or we won't see certain institutions or departments of the government just stop functioning. That type of solid. It's like the European system versus systems in Africa, where just things fail, and there's corruption, and things get out of control, and there's a new leader there, a new leader there, power struggles, arguments. And in some European countries like Switzerland, Belgium, et cetera, it's a lot more stable, systemic, predictable. That's probably the best comparison that I can think of. I'm not sure if it's a good one. So if I tell you if, let's say institutions, colleges, even hospitals, or some research institutes, if the boss tells the staff working there that everyone takes a 20% pay cut now, sometimes it could be even more, 30%, you know? That happens, you're saying? Yeah. Do you think the institutions are still solid? You know that you're not going to find a job elsewhere, given that you have no chance of, if you quit, you are not going to find any job anywhere else. And your boss tells you, everyone take a 30% pay cut now, okay? Do you think this institution is still going to be solid? That's why I challenge you about the definition of being solid. No, I understand. Well, that goes back to the Chinese economy, which last time you kept explaining to me that the Chinese economy is not as well as I thought, and many people have made it out to be. Another question I had written down, I forgot to ask you, North Korea. North Korea, yeah. Yeah, she goes there a lot, the North Korean leader goes there a lot. North Korea seems like this hermit country that we act like it almost doesn't exist, such a bizarre country in so many ways. Yet he's so close to Xi. Why North Korea? Why is there that special relationship between those two countries or leaders? I think North Korea right now is probably closer to Russia than to China. I mean, the Chinese call the North Korean their comrade brothers, right? Because both are communist states. Historically, North Korean leaders didn't see eye to eye. Kim Jong-un's grandfather was playing skillfully between China and Russia. Because China feels that it owns North Korea, but North Korea does not see it that way. But right now, economically, Kim Jong-un depends on China. But historically, I mean, Kim Jong-un changed his constitution, right? So that it has redefined South Korea as a hostile enemy state. And he removed reunification from its constitution, Kim Jong-un. Why do you think he does that? Because Xi Jinping is obsessed with unification with Taiwan, right? But Kim Jong-un did the opposite. He changed the constitution, removed the clause that his grandfather put in there to say that we need to reunify with the South. But he didn't like that. He removed it. Because Kim Jong-un wants to rule indefinitely, right? The regime is ruled by the Kim family. It's a hereditary system, which is very different from the CCP. Who will CCP, who's going to be the successor to Xi in China? Through power struggles. It's through power struggles. I mean, Mao was the supreme leader that no one can challenge. But when he died, his successor was kicked out by Deng Xiaoping. And Deng Xiaoping picked his successor. And then he didn't like Jiang Zemin, but it was too late to depose him. So it was always through power struggles. Actually, yeah, go ahead. Well, I was gonna say this. You've just explained why I don't like autocracies. That even if you have a good leader, how do you know the next leader will be a good leader? Let's say a country has a great leader that's leading the country to a lot of economic growth and prosperity and doing well for their people. But then how do you know the next leader will fit that description? And if they end up being a bad leader, and I always use an example that I don't know that well, probably should research it further. But there's a story about Marcus Aurelius was an incredible leader for the Roman Empire. And then his son took over, who was a disaster of a leader, just a horrible person, destroyed the Roman Empire. I quit butchering the story, but something along those lines. But this is a worry that I know Xi Jinping, you've told me last time, he's not that good of a leader. The country's not doing as well as people think it is. But even if he was, the question is, okay, who takes over? How will that transition of power look like? And what if the next leader is a lot worse or just an evil person? There is no way. I'm glad now there's checks and balances, what they established last year, the elders, the Council of Elders that you just mentioned. Actually, that's a good development, kind of decentralizing power a bit. But the struggles between the two sides could actually bring down the regime. Because it's life and death. If you look at what happened to Zhang Youxia, the military leader that got arrested in January, that move was suicidal by Xi Jinping. Because when he took down his top military commander, he's taken part of the regime down with him. And his opponent, because General Zhang is a princeling. He's not just like, he's like Xi Jinping, one of the red aristocrats. And so when Xi Jinping took down one of them, then the rest of the red aristocracy is going against him. So from the Western concept, it is a check and balance. From the CCP's political perspective, the infighting is brutal. It's life and death. Yeah, well, I appreciate you kind of shedding more light to that black box. That's always mysterious to the outside. I enjoyed our last conversation. I enjoyed this one as well. And you should always message us whenever there is new developments. I didn't know Xi disappeared for two weeks. So whenever there's a new scar somewhere, a new explosion, or Xi disappears again, or any of his new purge, please let us know again, because I'd love to have that conversation again. Okay, I'd love to. I'd love to. Perfect. Lei, pleasure to have you back on the show. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye, Lei. All right, guys. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. It's just a fascinating topic. I don't understand the CCP as well as I would like to. Someone that's been covering it for so many years. So let me know what you think in the comments. This is my last interview for the day, but an incredible lineup again. So I hope you enjoyed it. And I'll see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone. Thank you. I'll go.