FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BEIJING — A month and a half after making him disappear, the Chinese power announced that Defense Minister Li Shangfu had been removed. No explanation in the Xinhua agency statement reporting the decision taken by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. General Li Shangfu was last seen in public on August 29, at a peace and security forum in Beijing. Then nothing more. An exit from the scene without explanation, as happened in June to Qin Gang, the Foreign Minister who ended up in a black hole in June and then removed in July with a single line of press release. The two are also united by today’s note: both were deprived of the rank of State Councilor.
In mid-September, American intelligence revealed that General Li had come under investigation for corruption and had been arrested. Beijing continued to remain silent. Like him, he remained silent on the reasons for the dismissal of the Foreign Minister, who according to the rumors circulating on Mandarin social media he had been guilty of an extramarital affair with a journalist.
General Li, 65 years old, arrived at the top of the defense last March. A choice that was interpreted as a challenge to the United States, because Li Shangfu had been on Washington’s blacklist since 2018, subjected to formal sanctions that prevented him from entering American territory. The reason for the American ban is that when he headed the “Department of Equipment Procurement and Development” of the People’s Liberation Army, Li had negotiated with Moscow the purchase of Su-35 warplanes and of S-400 missiles.
Promoted to minister, the general had refused any contact with American adversaries, despite many requests for a meeting from the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin.
It’s been a summer of poison and mystery in Beijing. In addition to those of the two ministers sacked after being promoted only at the beginning of the year, the heads of two generals fell, Li Yuchao and Liu Guangbin, commander and deputy of the missile forces of the People’s Liberation Army. For these two officials the reason was declared: corruption.
It is possible that the Minister of Defense also ended up in disgrace due to embezzlements: the Department of Military Supplies was subjected to an investigation that started a few months ago and the Defense had strangely informed that the investigations would go back in time, up to 2017 , just as Li Shangfu had taken over the procurement and acquisition of materials for the armed forces. The disavowal of two newly appointed ministers raises doubts about the selection system of Chinese ministers: how is it possible that in a closed and harsh regime like Beijing’s, no one had previously investigated their past behavior?
Rahm Emanuel, American ambassador to Tokyo, wrote on missile generals, now the Minister of Defense…”.
2023-10-24 12:56:15
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