SubscribeAnd now, a metatextual explanation of the background to the China Arc in Geass.
Gao Hai and Xingke arriving on that day, Kaguya and the others staying in China, and Xingke staring in Babel Tower’s direction, suggests keikaku doori from cooperation between China and the Black Knights. The likely explanation is that the Eunuchs and co. took them in the one year down time, and then when the Black Knights were planning to get Zero back, they orchestrated this with the Black Knights so it’d all be keikaku doori. Likely, the Eunuchs wanted to have Gao Hai take Zero to China and then they’d secretly be turned into a wedding gift, etc.
So why exactly was Xingke there? I say this because it’s incredibly convenient he was there because the plot w/China pretty much only plays out like it did because he was there in Area 11.
One explanation is that they knew about him in S1. Maybe Lelouch had a list of “People who I would find useful and are in China” that he passed on to say Diethard, and then Kaguya was like, “Oh Tianzi, you should totally send Xingke to Area 11 with Gao Hai to welcome back Zero-sama! :D” So let’s say they magically knew about Xingke and that he wanted to start a revolt in China. That raises the question of how did they find that out about Xingke, but let’s just say that Lelouch’s info network must be pretty damn awesome. Sure.
But what if they didn’t know about him back in S1? Do we assume that C.C. hands Lelouch a report on the Chinese Federation which included, “Everything You Will Ever Need To Know About Li Xingke” five seconds after he got his memories back and by chance he comes up with a plan immediately? Remember that Kallen mentions around ep 4 that they haven’t had any contact with Lelouch, but C.C. just agrees to do whatever Xingke wants, knowing that Lelouch intends to make use of him.
Either way, we get to a point where Lelouch knows, either has known all along or found out really quickly, that Xingke is trying to get rid of the Eunuchs. Based on his reaction and their buddy list on his computer screen in R2 11, Diethard has spent time working up a timed revolt in China. I’m having a hard time stomaching how exactly he did this, or that the Eunuchs and their buddies didn’t keep any watch on the Black Knights actions while they were staying in China. They were planning on handing them over to Britannia all along, but letting them run free around their country in the mean time? The Eunuchs must be some of the fucking laziest or stupidest people ever. Sure, whatever.
Rakshata’s alternate preview for S1 23 says that if they had ran away to China, they would’ve had to fight. So why would China welcome them during the down time between S1 and R2? The answer is Schneizel. Remember his deal with China from S1? You don’t? Yeah neither do I since they never really told us. :) Anyway, Schneizel told the Eunuchs last time he was there, “So I think that the Black Knights are going to collapse soon due to the Special Zone. If they come to China, be nice, keep them here and we can be BFF’s through a political marriage and everything will be fabulous. Really.” This all goes to fuck after the Special Zone fails, then in R2 they renew the deal. This also explains why the Eunuchs accept the Black Knights, despite supposedly being told that the Black Knights killed Gao Hai, as per C.C.’s instructions to Xingke.
I think that, for the most part, the majority of the above is sense-making. In fact, whichever “they found out about Xingke” you take, it’s all probably correct. Unfortunately, all of the above is metatextual explanation. It’s an explanation that isn’t from the text itself. This isn’t the only explanation I could write about Geass because Geass has a lot of “lol wat just happened” moments. The amount of metatext explanations (or just “stuff not really explained outright in the show itself”) versus and the amount of stuff that’s actually given an explanation of stuff in the text creates a clash of thoughts for the viewers. It causes people to not take given, on-screen explanations seriously. The reaction to the Lelouch’s death and the irony of people coming up with meta explanations for something that is outright shown in the episode more or less proves this. And this is, as far as I’m concerned, a sign of failure in storytelling.
But giving away all of the answers isn’t really good either! That makes it too easy. :p (And you want people to use their brain a little, don’t you?) But overloading the amount of “we don’t want to really explain this” to the point where people can’t accept or don’t notice the given answers is a sign that you’re fucking up somewhere. 
Unless of course you don’t want to be taken remotely seriously at all, which given the amount of FABULOUS! a.k.a. bathos in Geass could just be the case.
amu-chi 
o.o 
=[ 
Karasu 
Valmanway 
RenTsuki 
Whocares 
“The reaction to the Lelouch’s death and the irony of people coming up with meta explanations for something that is outright shown in the episode more or less proves this.”
Well, can you really blame people? People die when they are killed… unless it’s Sunrise!