Zhu Rongji’s Death Shakes Beijing: Xi’s Secret Anti-Coup Force Is Exposed

Zhu Rongji died at 98, yet his obituary effectively spoke for him, casting him as a supporter of Xi Jinping, despite 23 years out of politics. The unusual wording hints at a very real fear in Beijing. White chrysanthemums quietly spread across social media. Comments vanished. Security around Tiananmen tightened. Then Bo Guaguo resurfaced, revealing that his father, Bo Xilai's political idol, was Zhu Rongji. Behind the scenes, Xi Jinping was reportedly building an 18,000-strong China-North Korea special force under his younger brother to guard against a coup, while a sweeping military purge targeted Zhang Youxia's faction. Beijing is trembling. Zhu Rongji dies, and Beijing suddenly goes on high alert. At 11.6am on August 12, Zhu Rongji died of illness in Beijing at the age of 98. That afternoon, Xinhua News Agency officially released his obituary. It traced his career from his early years at the State Planning Commission to Shanghai and the State Council, then covered his reforms of state-owned enterprises and the financial system, as well as China's entry into the World Trade Organization. Zhu served as Premier from 1998 until stepping down in 2003. But in the latter half of the obituary, the authorities abruptly inserted a striking line saying that after retirement, Zhu had firmly supported and upheld the Party Central Committee with comrade Xi Jinping at its core. The wording feels unusually forced. Zhu left the center of power in 2003, while Xi Jinping did not take power until 2012. Yet even after 23 years in retirement, the authorities still felt the need to put a final declaration of support for Xi Jinping in Zhu's mouth. That naturally recalls an episode from four years ago. In 2022, the Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with internal Chinese politics who said that some retired senior officials were unhappy with Xi Jinping's economic policies and with his decision to break with previous succession norms and remain in power. Zhu Rongji was reportedly among the names mentioned. Zhu never publicly confronted Xi or issued any political statement against him. But in the crucial year when Xi was preparing to secure a third term, Zhu's name did appear in reports about discontent among senior political figures. So when the official obituary in 2026 specifically emphasized that Zhu had firmly supported Xi Jinping, it inevitably drew attention. Soon after Zhu's death, the Epoch Times cited a source inside the Chinese system who disclosed another detail. In his final years, Zhu was reportedly treated at Beijing's PLA General Hospital, also known as Hospital 301. According to the source, his security detail, secretaries, doctors, and nurses were all placed under strict control by the central office system. The source also directly named Cai Qi, claiming that Zhu's activities in his later years were closely monitored and that major decisions about his medical treatment required approval from senior authorities. Xin Hua's obituary, however, only stated that Zhu died in Beijing and did not identify the hospital. The source raised an even more sensitive issue. What Beijing now fears is that the public could use memorials for Zhu Rongji as a vehicle to express dissatisfaction with present-day life. White chrysanthemums and candles soon began appearing across Chinese social media platforms. Some users posted only a photograph of flowers, without writing a single word. In screenshots circulating online, one person wrote, A lot of things can't be posted. Another replied, My post has already been restricted. Others warned, Don't write out the full name. At the same time, reports began appearing on overseas social media platforms that security had been tightened around Tiananmen Square, Tiananmen, and Chang'an Avenue in Beijing. Some claimed that more police, armed police, and black-clad security personnel had been deployed. As soon as those reports surfaced, many people were reminded of the atmosphere when Li Keqiang died three years earlier, on October 27, 2023, when large numbers of people also laid white chrysanthemums to mourn him. Going further back, when Hu Yaobang died in 1989, events also began with spontaneous student memorials. First came flowers, then funeral couplets, then growing crowds. Eventually, the mourning developed into a large-scale movement that spread across Beijing and other Chinese cities. Of course, China today is very different. There are far more surveillance cameras, mobile phones are tied to real-name registration, universities are more tightly controlled, and internet censorship is vastly more extensive than it was then. But precisely for that reason, spontaneous acts of public mourning have become even more politically sensitive. And at that very moment, Bo Guagua suddenly resurfaced, publishing a lengthy post on X. Bo Guagua mourns at the Rong grave. Bo Guagua recalled that when he was young, his family would often watch CCTV's evening news together after dinner. Whenever Zhu Rongji appeared on screen, his maternal grandmother would pay especially close attention. Bo also wrote that the memorial couplets at Baobaoshan would probably follow convention and say, deeply mourned. But in his view, there was no need for sorrow. Zhu should instead be remembered with a smile, because, as he put it, Zhu Rongji had already lived a remarkably rich and eventful life. Bo then abruptly shifted the subject to government. No matter what ideology or doctrine a government claims to follow, he wrote, it should ultimately be judged by one standard—whether the people living under its rule are prosperous. The moment that line appeared, the tone of the comments changed completely. More surprisingly, Bo Guagua revealed that he had once asked his father, Bo Xilai, Who is the political figure you most admire? Bo Xilai's answer was Zhu Rongji. Bo Xilai was once a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Politburo, Party Secretary of Chongqing, and Minister of Commerce. While in power in Chongqing, he aggressively promoted the campaign known as Sing Red Strike Black, pushing revolutionary red songs and propaganda on the one hand, while launching large-scale crackdowns on alleged organized crime and other so-called evil forces on the other. The Strike Black campaign later became highly controversial. Numerous cases were accused of involving coerced confessions through torture, violations of legal procedure, arbitrary detention, pressure on lawyers, and the substitution of political campaigns for normal judicial process. Bo Guagua now says that the political figure his father truly admired was Zhu Rongji, praising Zhu for maintaining a pragmatic spirit despite criticism and controversy in a complicated political environment. He also said his father was deeply influenced by Zhu's ethos of devoting oneself completely to duty until death. But netizens did not respond with the sentiment Bo Guagua seemed to expect. One bluntly asked, Are you mourning at the wrong grave? Others mocked the contradiction with Bo Xilai's own Sing Red Strike Black campaign in Chongqing. One wrote, When your father was singing red songs every day, what would Zhu Rongji, who was attacked by Maoist leftists, have thought? Another commented, When they arrested your father, Zhu Rongji probably approved of that too, didn't he? Around the time of Bo Xilai's downfall in 2012, media reports indeed claimed that when China's top leadership was deciding how to handle the Bo affair, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao consulted a group of retired party elders, including Zhu Rongji. That is what makes the whole episode especially ironic. What began as a tribute to Zhu Rongji ended up becoming a forum for netizens to reopen old chapters in the Bo family's history. Xi forms secret force, purges Jiang Yuxia's network. According to commentator Li Muyang, an online source claims that Xi Jinping has recently made two major moves. The first concerns a joint Chinese-North Korean military force reportedly deployed on both sides of the Changbai Mountains. China and North Korea are each said to have contributed 9,000 personnel, creating an 18,000 strong artillery force tasked with safeguarding the political security of both countries. The unit was reportedly in position by August 10. According to the claim, its main equipment includes short-range missile units, anti-aircraft artillery, drones and missile forces. Its purpose is said to be clear, to respond to a possible coup or internal uprising. Command is reportedly entrusted to special representatives personally appointed by Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un. On the Chinese side, that representative is said to be Xi's younger brother, Xi Yuanping. On the North Korean side, Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong. Both would allegedly have authority to mobilize the full 18,000 strong force. In other words, if a coup were launched in China, Xi Yuanping could supposedly deploy all 18,000 troops, including 9,000 North Korean soldiers, to suppress it. The same would apply in North Korea. If a coup broke out there, Kim Yo-jong could allegedly mobilize the joint force, including 9,000 Chinese troops, to intervene. If true, the report would directly reflect the deep insecurity of Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un, while suggesting that both leaders have very few people left whom they fully trust. The very creation of such a force as a precaution would suggest that both leaders believe the political situation is unstable and fear the possibility of rebellion from within. The fact that Xi and Kim would place their own siblings in command of such a unit would also show how much importance they attach to it, and how little trust they may have in their own military commanders. The second reported move is a wave of large-scale arrests across China's northern, eastern, and central theater commands. Between 80 and 100 people are said to have been detained, including numerous field-grade officers holding key positions in operations, technical departments, and strategic centers, many of them core personnel within the military. Most of the detained officers are reportedly linked to Zhang Youxia. More significantly, the claim says Xi is not only arresting officers themselves, but also targeting their families, with entire households allegedly detained and dealt with in secret. In other words, Xi is said to be attempting to uproot Zhang Youxia's influence throughout the military through a sweeping purge. These online claims have not been confirmed by Chinese authorities, nor have mainstream media outlets independently reported the alleged operation. What is known, however, is that Xi has carried out repeated military purges, and reports claim that the scale and intensity have increased sharply following the arrests of Zhang Youxia and Liu Zhenli. But there is another side to this. The more people Xi arrests, and the harsher the purges become, the more support and loyalty he risks losing. He cannot arrest everyone, meaning the threat to his rule can never be completely eliminated. In fact, the more people he targets, the greater that threat may become. What do you think of these developments? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for watching, and see you next time.