"U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring China’s Internet say that from March 14 to Wednesday bloggers circulated alarming reports of tanks entering Beijing and shots being fired in the city as part of what is said to have been a high-level political battle among party leaders - and even a possible military coup.

The Internet discussions included photos posted online of tanks and other military vehicles moving around Beijing.

The reports followed the ouster last week of senior Politburo member and Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, who was linked to corruption, but who is said to remain close to China’s increasingly nationalistic military.

Chinese microblogging sites Sina Weibo, QQ Weibo, and the bulletin board of the search engine Baidu all reported “abnormalities” in Beijing on the night of March 19.

The comments included rumors of the downfall of the Shanghai leadership faction and a possible “military coup,” along with reports of gunfire on Beijing’s Changan Street. The reports were quickly removed by Chinese censors shortly after postings and could no longer be accessed by Wednesday."

"For the public, Bo Xilai had to be brought down not through a political struggle but administrative reasons. Police Chief Wang Lijun had confronted Bo with evidence of his relatives including his wife involved in corruption. Hounded by Bo and his administration, Wang did what is openly known. For the Chinese people, Bo was removed for mishandling the Wang Lijun case. But China’s micro bloggers did not believe it. They saw a much bigger political problem."

"Although the coup rumours were unfounded, their spread and the government's tightening of Internet controls and warnings to ignore such talk have reflected jitters about stability after Bo's fall.

The Communist Party has always regarded its absolute grip on the PLA as its ultimate bulwark of power, and so the government is acutely sensitive about any signs of discord in the military.

The PLA has also been shaken by a separate corruption scandal in the run-up to the party leadership change, said Chen Ziming, an independent scholar of politics in Beijing."

"In November, Heywood died while on a visit to Chongqing. In February, Bo’s high-profile police chief Wang Lijun unsuccessfully tried to seek political asylum in an American consulate; he was whisked away by Chinese officers instead and is now under “investigation.” In mid-March, Bo got sacked. Shortly afterward, British officials say they asked Beijing to investigate Heywood’s demise due to “suggestions of suspicious circumstances involved in his death.” Throughout it all, no one has disputed that Heywood, also a Harrow alum, knew Bo’s flamboyant 24-year-old son Bo Guagua."