Zhou Yongkang first used armed police force in an attempt to arrest Hu and Wen. However, Hu and Wen had been prepared and Zhou’s coup was subdued, though rumors of Hu and Wen being arrested had been spread earlier.
forces directed by Zhou Yongkang had taken control over CCTV and the Xinhua News Agency, but that the regular army under the command of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao had since taken back control of the news outlets.
The news column on Xinhua’s website was all foreign news from 11 p.m. on March 19 to at least 8 a.m. on March 20, with not a single piece of domestic news—which is quite unusual.