Not since late August has anyone seen China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu. Then he gave a speech at a security conference with African leaders in Beijing. Last week he was supposed to meet Vietnamese defense officials, but did not show up, writes Reuters. Thus the speculation goes about what has happened to Li. No one knows, but several theories have been floated. – China is not a transparent society. It is difficult to deal with a country that is not so transparent, so there is a lot of guesswork, says China expert Torbjørn Færøvik. Suspected of corruption According to Reuters, the defense minister is under investigation for corruption in connection with the purchase of military equipment Eight other people from the Chinese military’s procurement department are also to be under investigation. Li led the department from 2017 to 2022. Chinese authorities have not commented on the information, writes The Economist. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says she is not aware of the case. Qin Gang was sworn in as foreign minister on March 12 this year. Just over four months later, he was removed from his job. Photo: AP The foreign minister disappeared The case with Li Shangfu takes place less than two months after a similar case with foreign minister Qin Gang. He disappeared from public view at the end of June. It led to rumors of a scandal involving an alleged mistress. After several weeks of speculation, it became clear that Qin had been removed from the job and replaced with his predecessor. Since losing his job, he has not been seen in public. New on the job In addition to Li and Qin, four top generals in the Chinese army have been removed over the past two months. According to The Economist, all the generals are at such a high level that China’s president and strongman, Xi Jinping. must have approved their removal. Both Defense Minister Li Shangfu and Foreign Minister Qin Gang were new to the job when they were removed. Li was appointed in March this year, while Qin got just over six months in the job. Also, one of the removed generals had only been in office for a few months. Judgment questions China’s strongman, Xi Jinping, is now in his third five-year term as president. Photo: Reuters The Economist writes that the fact that so many top officials have to resign raises questions about Xi Jingping’s judgment or ability to check who he appoints to top jobs. China expert Færøvik agrees and says that Xi was ultimately responsible for appointing them. – It is a sign of weakness. It is a sign that Xi has done a poor job according to his own specifications and requirements, Færøvik believes. Loss of face The disappearances at the top of China’s power pyramid come on top of other political problems for Xi. Earlier this year, figures emerged showing that over 20 per cent of Chinese youth between the ages of 16 and 24 are unemployed. The country has since announced that it will no longer publish figures on youth unemployment. Færøvik says that what happens now is a loss of face for Xi. – This is in addition to all the other losses of face that he has suffered recently in the form of a failing economy, more and more adversity abroad and not least the end of the pandemic, he says. According to Færøvik, Xi has always tried to appear infallible. – In good times where the economy where the economy is doing well, where everyone has rice in the bowl and everyone has work. That strategy is very straightforward. The moment things start to fail and he’s still trying to appear infallible, that’s when it all starts to fall apart. He is therefore in a very vulnerable position now, he says. “And thus there was no one” Færøvik points to the many cases in which high-ranking managers have been fired, and we have not been told more at all. – Everyone’s mouths are closed and thus a mystery is created and there is a lot of guesswork, he says. Rahm Emanuel, who was President Obama’s chief of staff and is now the US ambassador to Japan, has his own picture of what is happening in China. On X/Twitter, he compares the Chinese government to Agatha Christie’s famous crime novel “And thus there was no one”. As is well known, it ended with the entire gallery of people dead.
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China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu “disappeared” – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
