Xi Jinping Avoids Assassins and Refuses to Visit Tangshan! Is Li Qiang the Scapegoat? CCP Announces COVID Resurgence, 300 Million 'Oxen and Horses' Sell Properties, US-Taiwan Relations Solidify! Zelenskyy: Target is the Kremlin! (Old Beijing Teahouse/Episode 1699/2026/07/29)
The video discusses the reasons for Xi Jinping's absence from the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the Tangshan earthquake, speculating that it may be related to security concerns, with Premier Li Qiang attending on his behalf. Meanwhile, the video points out that the COVID-19 pandemic in China is heating up again, with official data showing an increase in positive rates and a higher proportion of severe cases, while analyzing the huge gap between official data and the actual situation. In diplomacy, the video analyzes the continuous warming of US-Taiwan relations and the US's firm stance on arms sales to Taiwan, suggesting that Beijing's efforts to influence arms sales will face institutional hurdles. In addition, the video explores the severe challenges facing China's aging population and the real estate market, pointing out that a large number of elderly people are listing their properties for sale, which, combined with the plummeting birth rates, could lead to a complete collapse of the real estate market and signal a drastic shift in an era.
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July 28 marks the 50th anniversary of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Tangshan, Hebei Province. However, at this extremely special milestone ending in zero, a travel itinerary of the top leadership of the CCP has sparked widespread attention and speculation outside. According to a report by the CCP's official state media Xinhua News Agency, on the morning of July 28, entrusted by Xi the Steamed Bun, State Council Premier Li Qiang went to Tangshan, Hebei Province for research and condolences, and presented flower baskets at the Tangshan Earthquake Ruins Memorial Park. Foreign media outlets like Reuters were also puzzled. According to past practices, major commemorative itineraries like the Tangshan earthquake are usually attended in person by the top leader, CCP General Secretary Steamed Bun Emperor himself. Why did he bail this time?
It turns out that CCP General Secretary Xi the Steamed Bun met in Beijing with visiting Slovak President Peter Pellegrini. The two chatted away about all sorts of random things—making conversation where there was none—and simply had to spend the day of the Tangshan earthquake anniversary talking endlessly with the Slovak president, as if the earth was shattering. Media outlets like Taiwan's Central News Agency had previously speculated that the Steamed Bun would personally attend the 50th-anniversary commemoration of the Tangshan earthquake. However, at this major 50th-anniversary milestone, the Steamed Bun was conspicuously absent, and instead, his little follower Li Qiang showed up, breaking years of convention. What was the reason behind this?
Speaking of this so-called "years of convention," let's provide some background for tea friends who might not know. In fact, for many years, the CCP has followed the rule of paying special attention to anniversaries ending in 5 or 10 for major celebrations or memorial days. During past anniversaries of the Tangshan earthquake ending in 10, the top leaders of the CCP have invariably gone in person to present flowers and pay their respects. Looking backward from recent times: on July 28, 2016, the 40th anniversary, the Steamed Bun personally came to the Tangshan Earthquake Ruins Park and presented a flower basket in front of the memorial wall. On July 28, 2006, the 30th anniversary, then-CCP Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao went to the Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Square to pay his respects. On July 28, 1996, the 20th anniversary, then-CCP Central Committee General Secretary Jiang Zemin attended the commemorative activities in person.
It is precisely because of such clear political conventions that Xi's absence at the 50th anniversary, a milestone with even greater historical weight, appears particularly unusual. Ten years ago, on the 40th anniversary of the Tangshan earthquake, Xi went to Tangshan. Ten years later, with the 50th anniversary coinciding with a 'five' and 'ten' year mark, Xi greased his heels and slipped away. A netizen hit the nail on the head: he wouldn't go because 'earthquake' (zhen) implies instability, and he would stay far away from that word. Daring to go ten years ago but staying away now, Xi's level of concern for his own life has also accelerated. Perhaps it is because of the 'dare to struggle and be good at struggling' that he commands; the struggle situation is too intense, white-hot, and treacherous, so he received news in advance that he might not return if he went.
Looking at the three-day total airspace control in Tangshan and the ban on all 'low, slow, and small' drones, this is definitely the kind of treatment only Xi, this 'Emperor of Unfinished Projects' and 'Grandmaster of Zero-COVID,' would receive. If it had been decided beforehand that Li Qiang would go, Xi would never have allowed Li to enjoy such treatment. Think about it carefully: when Li Qiang goes abroad for official visits, Xi doesn't even allow him to take the special plane, forcing him to charter a flight every time—not to save money, but purely to humiliate him, to let 'Little Qiang' know his place. So, for Xi to be absent from such a major anniversary, especially when it is so close to Beijing, insiders have leaked with certainty that Xi received news that an assassin was already in place, urgently changed his schedule, and sent his vase-like second-in-command, Li Qiang, to be the scapegoat. Cai Qi is most satisfied with this arrangement, shouting in his heart: 'Where is the assassin? The target is here, carrying a bow—Li Qiang.'
What do netizens say? Xi is terrified of death. The outside world guessed he would go, and the assassin also guessed he would go, so he didn't go. Li Qiang is acting as a human shield for the General Secretary. Setting aside the terrified Xi, let's talk about the Tangshan earthquake. In fact, whenever Chinese people mention the Tangshan earthquake, a hidden pain and solemnity arise in everyone's heart. Fifty years ago today, in the early morning of July 28, 1976, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Tangshan, Hebei Province, an industrial hub in China. The earth shook violently for 23 seconds, instantly leveling over 90% of man-made structures on the surface.
Regarding the death toll of this catastrophe, there has always been a huge information gap between official and unofficial sources. Official data states that the Tangshan earthquake caused about 242,000 deaths, over 160,000 serious injuries, and 7,200 families were wiped out. However, this figure of 242,000 was not officially released by the State Seismological Bureau until November 1979, more than three years after the earthquake. What do unofficial and expert statistics say? The death toll long circulated among the public is at least 600,000. Zhang Yuming, a former doctor at Henan Medical University and a retired researcher at Yale University, once stated that the actual magnitude of the Tangshan earthquake was 9.0, and the true death toll was as high as 750,000, three times the official figure. Some netizens lamented that the casualty data was concealed for years, the fate of the people is like ants, and the crimes committed by the CCP are truly too numerous to record. As the saying goes, believing in the Communist Party is a fast track to the crematorium; Heaven will destroy the CCP, and only by quitting the Party can one be safe.
Tea friends, let's have an emergency poll: why didn't Xi go to Tangshan? 1. Meeting foreign guests in Beijing, couldn't get away. 2. Afraid of being assassinated, didn't dare to go. 3. Knowing the Tangshan earthquake was a man-made disaster, too ashamed to go. 4. Anything is possible. Quickly type your number in the comments section. Alright, new tea friends, click [Subscribe] and the little bell. Welcome to join the happy journey of the Teahouse, look at the world from a different angle with us, and let your mood improve. Note that subscribing is free; press the subscribe button to harvest laughter continuously.
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Just as the political movements of Xi the Steamed Bun have sparked discussion, the public health situation within China has once again sounded an alarm. Less than a week ago, on July 23, the CCP's Center for Disease Control and Prevention suddenly and proactively confessed: sentinel surveillance data shows that the positive detection rate has surged. In the 29th week of 2026, from July 13 to 19, the COVID-19 positive detection rate surpassed that of influenza, ranking first among respiratory pathogens for several consecutive weeks. What is going on? For many years, when COVID-19 had not yet exited the stage, the Steamed Bun ordered that the term "COVID-19" must not appear on hospital diagnostic reports; it had to be called pneumonia. Why has it suddenly been unbanned this time? Pay close attention: the COVID-19 "bachelor" has returned.
Liu Zhuo must remind tea friends within the Great Firewall that when something goes wrong, there must be a demon behind it. If the Steamed Bun allows the authorities to high-profilely announce COVID-19 data again, there must be a special reason. Either it is completely out of control and cannot be covered up, or the situation of popular resistance against the CCP is becoming too severe, and the Steamed Bun might be brewing a major evil scheme: targeted lockdowns based on need. If I cannot lock down the virus, I can at least lock down your feet, preventing you from colluding to rebel, and keeping you all stationary in place. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that both factors are at play. Therefore, the Steamed Bun is taking the opportunity to forcefully maintain stability. In fact, internal insiders indicate that the proportion of severe cases in this COVID-19 wave has indeed increased significantly. Among hospitalized severe cases, the COVID-19 positive rate reached 5.9%, ranking first. In addition, data from Meituan's "medical consultation and medicine purchase" platform confirms this. Since mid-July, demand for COVID-19-related consultations and medicine purchases has surged in eight major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, involving more than 6.5 million people. Many netizens have stated that after their family members were infected, they generally experienced high fever, "razor throat," severe coughing, and even lung pain, and the cough persisted for half a month after testing negative without fully recovering.
Some netizens also complained that the experts' statements were inconsistent. Experts claimed on one hand that COVID-19 was just a "minor cold" and there was no need to panic, while on the other hand, they urged the public to prepare epidemic prevention drugs. However, because hospitals were short of medicine, people had to buy high-priced drugs on online platforms at their own expense, often costing three or four hundred yuan, which ordinary families could not afford. Regarding the data reported by the CCP authorities over the years, outside media and overseas experts have conducted in-depth comparative analysis. The Economist magazine once estimated that the deviation in the number of deaths from the epidemic in China was as high as 17,000%, meaning the death toll announced by the CCP might only be 1/367th of the actual number of deaths. Some netizens were shocked, noting that the death rate reported by the CCP authorities was "more than 100,000 times lower than in Western countries" and 34 times lower than in South Korea. This huge discrepancy completely violates any real epidemiological laws. Netizens could not help but sigh that the truth is never afraid of virus mutations, only of the common people's social media circles. A true plague is a system that treats the truth as a forbidden zone. What do you think, omniscient tea friends?
While domestic politics and health crises are intertwined, the CCP is also facing severe institutional obstacles in diplomacy and the Taiwan Strait game. Rumors suggest that Beijing is currently trying to use the multiple high-level US-China meetings that may be held in the second half of this year to demand that Washington continue to delay arms sales to Taiwan. Let's first look at the diplomatic schedule the Party has arranged for the Steamed Bun for the second half of the year, and then see what medicine the Steamed Bun is selling in his gourd. The Steamed Bun may visit the US at the end of September, attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Shenzhen in November, and attend the G20 summit in December. The Wall Street Journal laid out Beijing's calculations: first, the CCP and the Steamed Bun hope to incorporate the arms sales issue into the negotiation rhythm of Trump-Xi interactions during the visit at the end of September, urging the US not to push forward any new notifications of arms sales to Taiwan within this year. However, Beijing's wishful thinking faces rigid constraints from the US policy framework. The first is the constraint of the US "Six Assurances" to Taiwan. The "Six Assurances," an important foundation of US policy toward Taiwan, clearly stipulate that the US will not consult with Beijing before deciding on arms sales to Taiwan, nor will it grant Beijing a veto over arms sales decisions or allow Beijing to influence arms sales decisions.
Washington think tanks also stated that although The Washington Post reported in May that the White House had delayed some arms sales procedures to Taiwan, many US researchers on Taiwan policy emphasized that if Beijing wants to influence arms sales through diplomatic negotiations, it will directly hit the institutional wall of US policy. To put it bluntly, US arms sales to Taiwan are a certainty; whether sooner or later, they will happen. Look here. In addition, regarding US-Taiwan relations, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen stated frankly on the Brookings Institution website on July 23 that today's US-Taiwan relationship is not only not weakened but is at its strongest and most comprehensive moment since the US and Beijing established diplomatic relations 47 years ago in 1979. Why say so? First, from arms transfers to a comprehensive institutionalized partnership, it means that US-Taiwan relations have developed from being purely centered on unofficial exchanges and arms sales in the past to a comprehensive partnership covering security, trade, technology, global governance, education, and civil society. For example, the training planning and consultations between the US military and the Taiwan military are more extensive than at any time since 1979.
Second, U.S.-Taiwan economic and trade relations and supply chains are deeply integrated. Against the backdrop of the global AI chip boom, Taiwan has risen from the eighth-largest U.S. trading partner a few years ago to the fourth-largest. TSMC has pledged to invest $265 billion in its Arizona chip plant, and the two sides recently reached a Reciprocal Trade Agreement. Third, righteous countries around the world are continuously participating in the development of U.S.-Taiwan relations. For example, the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) established jointly by the U.S. and Taiwan in 2015 has now successively attracted Japan, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom to join. Moreover, Trump's two terms can be described as the period with the most intensive breakthroughs in U.S.-Taiwan relations, such as the level of U.S. officials visiting Taiwan continuously breaking historical records, the number of U.S. military personnel stationed in Taiwan continuing to grow, U.S. advisors even being stationed on the frontline in Kinmen, and the nature of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan shifting from defensive to offensive. Look right over here.
In short, the more Beijing emphasizes that the "Taiwan question allows no external interference," the more the U.S. slaps the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the face with solid agreements and arms sales lists. Therefore, I advise that steamed bun over there who is obsessed with
Let's do the math. Assuming that among the 150 million urban elderly who own property, only one-tenth—that is, 15 million people—decide to sell their homes for retirement, that would release 15 million housing units onto the market. Yet, the total transaction volume for second-hand homes across China in 2025 was only around 4.3 million units. This means that even without any new housing supply, the properties sold by the elderly alone would be enough to saturate the market for over three years. Even more severe is the fact that the generation born between 1962 and 1975, a group of nearly 300 million people, is now entering retirement. This generation happens to be the most significant buyer group in China's real estate market over the past two decades. If you are feeling panicked about a wave of property sell-offs, don't worry—I have something even more heartbreaking to tell you. What is it? Research data shows that the total number of births in China in 2025 was only 7.92 million, which is the worst figure since the two-child policy was introduced in 2016. Behind this cliff-like decline lies the dilemma of having no one to take over the market in the future. Look here.
If the sharp decline in population and the lack of buyers make you feel cold, the reality that follows will leave you completely chilled to the bone. Beyond the real estate winter, a strange phenomenon is quietly unfolding in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Shops are closing one after another; bustling commercial streets that were once impossible to get a storefront in now have increasingly high vacancy rates, with a large number of physical stores unable to last even half a year. Young people are beginning to flee big cities. Under the pressure of high costs and the risk of unemployment, more and more young people are leaving Beijing and Shanghai, choosing to head to cities with lower costs or even moving back to their hometowns. Consumption in big cities is undergoing a comprehensive downgrade; ordinary people are increasingly reluctant to spend money, and their mindset has shifted from the past "enjoying consumption" to now "desperately saving money." Therefore, when sayings like "opening a shop means losing money, buying a house means getting trapped, and saving money is the only way to go" evolve from individual phenomena into a universal social consensus, we may be witnessing the dramatic turning point of an era with our own eyes. And the culprit behind all of this is that crooked-necked Emperor Qingfeng, the Emperor of Reversing the Gear, sitting on the dragon throne. And he is still muttering to himself: "Reversing, please watch out." New tea friends, don't forget to click subscribe and the little bell. Tea friends are also welcome to click on the Canadian Ginex American Ginseng Black Paste recommended by the brothers; there are links in the pinned comment in the text box below the title. Let's go! Several new products launched every week.