The absence of China’s defense minister Li Shangfu has been questioned by a senior US diplomat, reigniting rumors of a potential corruption sweep.
General Li has reportedly missed many meetings and hasn’t been seen in public in roughly two weeks.
The US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, made some assumptions about Mr. Li’s absence by tweeting that the “unemployment rate” in the Chinese government was extremely high.
Following the recent firing of numerous prominent military leaders, Mr. Li has been missing.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Mr. Li is being fired from his position, citing sources in the US and China.
Additionally, it occurs months after the public was last seen seeing foreign minister Qin Gang. The reasons behind Mr. Qin’s abrupt departure and replacement in July are still unclear
The Chinese government has not spoken much about Gen Li’s situation either. A representative for the Chinese Foreign Ministry reportedly claimed this week that she was “not aware of the situation” when questioned about it.
Three weeks ago, on August 29, Gen Li made his last public appearance in Beijing at a security conference with African countries. Defense ministers frequently disappear from the public eye for a few weeks at a time.
Gen Li has enjoyed a seamless rise through the ranks of the military and Chinese political elite. He is an aerospace engineer who started his career at a satellite and rocket launch facility.
He is reportedly President Xi Jinping’s favorite, just like Mr. Qin is. Additionally, after Mr. Qin, he is the second cabinet minister and state councilor to go missing in recent months.
Early in August, when two generals in China’s rocket forces—which oversee land-based missiles—were changed, internet rumors of a military corruption crackdown first started to circulate. A few months after his appointment, the military court’s president was likewise fired.
Mr. Emanuel mentioned Mr. Qin and the other military officers’ disappearance while highlighting Gen. Li’s absence in tweets last week and on Friday.
He also mentioned that Gen Li had recently skipped out on trips to Vietnam and a meeting in Beijing with the commander of Singapore’s navy, suggesting that Gen Li might have been put under house arrest.
The outspoken ambassador, who is well-known for his witty tweets, linked the absence to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Agatha Christie mystery And Then There Were None. “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” Mr. Emanuel tweeted on Friday.
According to a Reuters article quoting Vietnamese authorities, Mr. Li abruptly left a meeting with Vietnamese defense commanders last week after they were informed the Chinese general had a “health condition”.
Sean Wat, the head of Singapore’s navy, recently visited China and spoke with military leaders. The BBC has requested confirmation of Mr. Emanuel’s claim from the Singaporean navy.
In addition to being attributed to “health conditions,” Mr. Qin’s disappearance, which has already lasted three months, has also been related to several rumors of a corruption purge. He was afterwards fired from his position.
Chinese officials are known to rarely miss important meetings due to illness since they undergo frequent, thorough medical examinations.
Gen Li has his share of detractors. He received a punishment from the US government in 2018 while leading the military’s equipment development branch due to China’s acquisition of Russian combat aircraft and weapons.
At a Singapore defense forum earlier this year, Gen Li declined to meet with his US colleague Lloyd Austin because of the penalties.
Gen Li’s absence, according to observers, highlights the uncertainty of some of Mr. Xi’s actions and once again demonstrates the opaqueness of Chinese political leadership.
Since Xi endorsed the choice of the present leadership, high-level disappearances and potential corruption investigations are not good for his image, according to Neil Thomas, a specialist in Chinese elite politics with the Asia Society Policy Institute.
However, he went on to say that, in the end, “Xi’s leadership and overall political stability do not appear to be under threat, as none of the affected cadres are part of his inner circle.”
According to analyst Bill Bishop, the Chinese military has a “long history of corruption” and Mr. Xi, who is also the supreme head of the Chinese military under China’s democratic system, has attempted to combat it like his predecessors.
However, he said in his most recent analysis, “it would be remarkable” that more than a decade after Mr. Xi’s ascension to power, “there is still such high-level corruption [in the military], and for the Rocket Force officers and Li Shangfu, Xi cannot blame his predecessors”.
According to him, “more purges will likely be seen as the solution” because Mr. Xi had promoted Gen. Li, Mr. Qin, and the heads of the rocket force.
The disappearances are taking place at a time of increased military action close to Taiwan and tensions in the South China Sea, according to Ian Chong, a non-resident expert at Carnegie China.
Concerns about yet another round of naval drills have been raised in recent days as Chinese warships, including the aircraft carrier Shandong, have gathered in the Taiwan Strait.
Some people “would be concerned about issues of communication, escalation and crisis management” at this time because the military and foreign ministry are significant outward-facing components of the Chinese system, Dr. Chong added.
Mr. Emanuel’s tweets would be considered odd for a senior US diplomat, especially one who serves as ambassador to Japan, a key ally of the US and a country with tense relations with China.
Although they are “perplexing,” Brad Glosserman, a senior consultant with the Pacific Forum research institute, said “I am pretty sure he has a greenlight from the White House” to be bringing up Gen Li’s absence in this manner.
Dr. Chong speculated that Mr. Emanuel might be attempting to get China to respond to the disappearance in some way.
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