Despite hot and heavy rumors of a coup to depose dictator Xi Jinping, a comeuppance that CCP watchers thought might take place during a Party powwow in October, he seems for now to have survived any plotting.
The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, in which these same analysts had inferred a subtle factional rift, seems to be all better now too. Mostly. As Mark Simon observes in a recent Substack post, a standard pattern remains in evidence: “Successes redound to the paramount leader; embarrassments vanish without trace” (November 16, 2025).
Except that Hong Kong officials haven’t exactly been following the pattern lately.
Consider this recent Wen Wei Po editorial, a mouthpiece for Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing establishment. [Simon provides an English translation of the editorial as a postscript to his own piece.] It betrays Xi Jinping in a spectacular fashion on the matter of Jimmy Lai and President Trump….
This Wen Wei Po piece isn’t for Western ears. It’s a message to Beijing—and, crucially, to Hong Kongers—insisting President Trump never raised Jimmy Lai at the APEC summit [in late October]. Erasing inconvenient facts from history is CCP 101. But here’s the twist: In scrambling to bury the story, Wen Wei Po leaves Xi undefended, exposed as weak….
What’s glaringly absent is any vindication of Xi’s APEC performance. No boast of his deft handling of Trump. No assurance that China’s leader outmaneuvered the U.S. on this front. Instead, the silence screams doubt. These writers imply Xi fumbled the Lai question—too hot for Xi to touch, yet too real for them to ignore.
By denying the exchange outright, they concede their boss lacks the chops to resolve it on China’s terms. This flouts CCP orthodoxy, where loyalty means amplifying triumphs and muting flops….
If Wen Wei Po was concerned about President Xi, there never would have been anything written. The summit was a snooze: trade tweaks for all, no fireworks. Trump raised Lai; Xi said nothing. So why fan the flames? Why not let the whispers fade, as is standard CCP procedure?
Simon says that the botched messaging tends to deprive Xi of room to maneuver if he should after all decide to let Jimmy Lai out of jail.
“In attempting to deny Trump’s mention of Lai, they’re not just gaslighting locals—they’re boxing in Beijing. Wen Wei Po offers Xi no room to move for an issue obviously important for President Trump. For if Xi offers a deal, why did he do it, when Trump never brought it up?”
Simon also says that there’s “no way” that Hong Kong’s blathering is a mere blunder. But if his reading of the situation is accurate, the question is Hong Kong’s motive. “Why Wen Wei Po has tried to throw a spanner in the works I do not know, but what Beijing now knows is that their southern city’s leadership has an agenda that doesn’t match up” with the agenda of Xi Jinping.
