China’s former Defence Minister Li Shangfu attends the 20th IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 02, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Former Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party, state media said on June 27, after he was sacked abruptly last year in unexplained circumstances.

“The Politburo… has decided to expel Li Shangfu from the party, terminate his credentials as a representative of the 20th National Congress, and transfer his suspected criminal issues to military procuratorial organs for review and prosecution,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

The Communist Party’s powerful Politburo of senior leaders convened on June 27 to review a report on Mr. Li’s status.

There, they ruled Mr. Li had “betrayed his original mission and lost his party spirit and principles”, according to CCTV.

He “seriously polluted the political environment and industrial ethos in the field of military equipment, and caused great damage to the party’s cause, national defence and the construction of the armed forces”, CCTV said.

Mr. Li is “suspected of bribery” having been accused of “taking advantage of his position and taking huge sums of money to seek benefits for others… and giving money to others to seek inappropriate benefits”, it said.

He also “illegally sought personnel benefits for himself and others”, it added.

China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

China on October 25 refused to explain why Defence Minister Li Shangfu was removed from office, a day after he was fired following weeks out of the public eye.

In a major reshuffle of top leadership, Beijing announced on October 24 that Mr. Li and ousted ex-Foreign Minister Qin Gang had been removed from the Cabinet.

No explanation was given for their removal from office.

When asked about the firings on October 25, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told journalists she did not have “any other information to provide”.

Ms. Mao instead referred media to state news agency Xinhua, which also provided no information about their removal from office.

“If you’re concerned about whether China is transparent, what I can say is that we release information on all appointments and removals of personnel in a timely manner,” she said.

Both Mr. Qin and Mr. Li are believed by experts to have been personally selected for their roles by President Xi Jinping.

Beijing:

China removed its defence minister on Tuesday, the second ousting of a senior leader in three months, raising questions about the stability of the leadership team around Chinese President Xi Jinping.

General Li Shangfu, who has been absent from public view for two months, was dismissed as defence minister and state councillor, according to state media.

China also announced that Qin Gang, who was removed as foreign minister in July, was also stripped of his state councillor position.

China’s top legislators, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, approved the removal of both men, state broadcaster CCTV reported, without given any explanation.

No replacement for Li was named, leaving the country without a defence minister as it prepares to host foreign defence officials at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum on Oct. 29-31.

Li, 65, disappeared from public view two months ago. Reuters reported last month that he was under investigation for suspected corruption related to equipment procurement and development.

Li was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2018 over Beijing’s purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia.

He had only been in the job since March when Xi started his precedent-breaking third term as head of state. No other defence minister in China had served for a shorter time than Li.

Qin had also served less than a year before he disappeared from public view and was replaced by his predecessor, Wang Yi. No formal explanation has been given but the Wall Street Journal cited sources saying Qin had an extramarital affair while he was ambassador to the United States.

With the ousting of both men, the number of China’s state councillors, a more senior rank than minister, is down to three.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow, Russia, on April 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Speculation about the missing Chinese Defence Minister Gen. Li Shangfu may have been removed and detained became rife after he was conspicuously absent at the meeting of the Central Military Commission (CMC) here on September 15.

Regarded as a close confidante of President Xi Jinping, Gen. Li has not been seen in public since early this month, and also had not attended the meeting with senior Vietnamese defence officials on September 7 and 8.

Gen. Li is the second high-ranking Minister and ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) official to go missing since July this year.

Gen. Li was conspicuously missing from the meeting held on September 15 of the CMC, the overall high command of the Chinese military headed by President Xi, according to the footage aired on the state broadcaster CCTV, extending an unexplained public absence now in its third week, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on September 16.

Besides his Presidency, 70-year-old Mr. Xi, regarded as the most powerful leader after Mao Zedong, heads the CPC and the CMC too.

The September 15 meeting discussed the political education of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Three of the seven-member Central Military Commission (CMC) He Weidong, the commission’s vice-chairman; Admiral Miao Hua, who supervises political affairs, and rocket force General Zhang Shengmin, who is in charge of disciplinary issues, attended the meeting, the Post said.

Also, not in attendance were General Liu Zhenli, the chief of staff of the joint staff department, and General Zhang Youxia, Mr. Xi’s trusted ally and the first-ranked CMC vice chair.

Mr. He, who chaired the meeting, asked the PLA commanders to strengthen their political conviction and step up combat readiness, the Post reported, quoting the official media.

There has been no official explanation for Gen. Li’s absence. However, his name still figures as a member of the CMC on the official Chinese Defence Ministry website.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who was not seen publicly for weeks, prompting speculation of his detention, was replaced by veteran diplomat and Director of CPC’s Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi in July by a resolution of the Chinese Parliament, the National People’s Congress.

While the sudden replacement of the two high-profile ministers sparked rumours of purges at the top of the government and the party, they also puzzled analysts as both Mr. Qin and Mr. Li were close confidants of Mr. Xi and handpicked by him for the top posts.

Gen. Li’s absence followed a major shakeup in the PLA Rocket (missile) Force in which its commander, Li Yuchao, and political commissar, Xu Zhongbo, were both replaced without any official explanation.

He headed the Rocket Force before he was elevated as a minister.

Gen. Li, a Chinese aerospace engineer and General of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was appointed as Defence Minister even though he was sanctioned by the US in 2018 for the purchase of Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 surface-to-air missiles by China’s Equipment Development Department (EDD) in violation of US sanctions on Russia.

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu delivers a speech at XI Moscow conference on international security in the Moscow region, Russia, August 15, 2023. Credit: Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
| Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS

China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu has become the latest senior Chinese official caught up in swirling political rumours, with reports on Friday suggesting that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General had been detained over on-going corruption investigations.

Only in July, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who had been appointed in March, disappeared without explanation from public view for several weeks before a brief announcement declared he had been removed from the post. Three months on, there still hasn’t been any explanation over the reasons behind the sudden removal of one of the most prominent public faces of the Xi Jinping government, who also served as one of five State Councillors – the third highest position in the executive branch of government behind the Premier and Vice Premiers.

On Friday, reports said Mr. Li – who is also one of the five State Councillors – had been detained over ongoing corruption investigations into the military’s Rocket Force – formerly the Second Artillery Corps – which has already seen several senior officials placed under investigation. Mr. Li was the first Chinese Defence Minister – who also serves on the Central Military Commission headed by Mr. Xi – who hailed from the Rocket Force.

While it remains unclear if the apparent removals of two of the most prominent ministers were linked, some of the purges in the Rocket Force were announced days after Mr. Qin’s removal.

Chinese officials on Friday declined to comment on the whereabouts of Mr. Li, who like Mr. Qin, disappeared suddenly from public view. Also as was in the case of Mr. Qin, Beijing explained his absence in diplomatic meetings to “health reasons”.

U.S. officials have said they believe Mr. Li to be in detention by authorities for questioning and to have been removed from his post, according to a Friday report in the Financial Times. Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, commented on the removals in a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying the political developments in Beijing under Mr. Xi were resembling the plot of an Agatha Christie novel. “First, Foreign Minister Qin Gang goes missing, then the Rocket Force commanders go missing, and now Defense Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen in public for two weeks,” he wrote.

What is striking about both Mr. Qin and Mr. Li is they were handpicked and fast-tracked by Mr. Xi to their posts, and both barely lasted six months in their positions.

Mr. Li would become the first Central Military Commission (CMC) member to be removed in several years. Mr. Xi early in his term oversaw the purge of two of the PLA’s highest-ranking Generals on the CMC, and later removed a third, with most observers suggesting the purges had firmly established Mr. Xi’s centralised control over a military that had, under his predecessors, functioned as a state-within-a-state with widespread corruption.

Mr. Xi, now in a precedent-defying third term, has been widely seen as the most powerful leader since Mao Zedong and as having eliminated all political rivals and challenges. The continuing purges, however, suggest otherwise, even if the black box of Chinese politics leaves observers with little information to ascertain what is unfolding behind the scenes.

If those early removals reflected a battle being waged to establish control over the military, the latest cases are more puzzling. Yet another removal of one of the PLA’s highest ranking Generals would suggest serious unresolved issues regarding Mr. Xi’s control over the military, which has been the target of several sweeping corruption investigations during his decade at the helm.

Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. government believes China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu is the subject of an investigation by Beijing and has been relieved of his duties, the Financial Times reported late Thursday citing American officials.

The report came shortly before high-ranking diplomat Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, stated on social media that Mr. Li “hasn’t been seen or heard from in 3 weeks,” and that the minister might have been placed under house arrest.

It is the latest sign of potential turmoil in Beijing after Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang inexplicably disappeared and was ousted from his post in July.

China also replaced the leadership of its Rocket Force, the army unit that oversees its nuclear arsenal, in July, with its former commander Li Yuchao not seen in public for weeks before the change and official media Xinhua giving no explanation for his removal.

Asked by AFP on Friday whether Li Shangfu was under investigation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said she was “not aware of the situation you raise.”

The Times reported that three U.S. officials as well as two people briefed on intelligence said the United States determined Li Shangfu had been stripped of his duties as minister.

It was not clear what made President Joe Biden’s administration conclude that Mr. Li was under investigation. The White House has not publicly addressed the matter.

Mr. Li traveled to Russia in August to attend a security conference near Moscow on August 15. Two days later, the government of Belarus released handout photographs of Mr. Li meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.

Mr. Li has refused to hold meetings with U.S. counterparts until Washington lifts sanctions on him, imposed by then-president Donald Trump in 2018 for his procurement of Russian military technology.

The latest apparent removal of an elite Chinese official from public view led Ambassador Emanuel, who has been openly critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping, to fuel speculation about the issue on September 7 and again one week later.

“President Xi’s cabinet lineup is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None. First, Foreign Minister Qin Gang goes missing, then the Rocket Force commanders go missing, and now Defence Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen in public for two weeks,” Mr. Emanuel posted last week on X (formerly Twitter) using the hashtag #MysteryInBeijingBuilding.

On Thursday, in another post on his official ambassador account that appeared to openly provoke the Xi government, he questioned whether Beijing authorities have restricted Mr. Li’s movements.

“1st: Defence Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen or heard from in 3 weeks. 2nd: He was a no-show for his trip to Vietnam,” he wrote.

“Now: He’s absent from his scheduled meeting with the Singaporean Chief of Navy because he was placed on house arrest???… Might be getting crowded in there.”

Mr. Emanuel is a former White House chief of staff who earned a reputation in Washington for his ferocious style and hardball politics.

The remarks come at a time of heightened trade and geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.