News Analysis Before discussing what’s happening with Party leader Xi Jinping, we need to look at a similar situation in China’s history. On Sept. 13, 1971, a plane crashed in Wendul Khan, Mongolia, killing all nine people on board. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) said that Lin Biao, Mao Zedong’s successor, together with his wife and son, were victims of the deadly crash as they fled to the Soviet Union. Soon thereafter, the authorities further clarified that Lin had been planning a military coup to assassinate Chairman Mao. Lin Biao had a notable military career during wartime and also played an important role as Mao’s right-hand man after the CCP seized power in China. In April 1969, when the CCP’s 9th National Congress adopted a new Party constitution, it named Lin as Mao Zedong’s “intimate comrade-in-arms and successor.” Lin and his close followers in the military were therefore labeled a …