Chinese defence minister under investigation by Beijing, US believes

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The U.S. government believes Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu is under investigation, the latest sign of unrest among elite members of Beijing’s military and foreign policy establishment.

The United States has concluded that Li Keqiang, who has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, has been dismissed as defense minister, three U.S. officials and two people familiar with the matter said.

Two months ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping fired two top generals from the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which oversees China’s rapidly expanding arsenal of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

The investigation into Li also follows the disappearance of Qin Gang, who was fired as China’s foreign minister in July.

People familiar with the intelligence did not say what led the Biden administration to conclude Lee was under investigation. The White House had no comment. The Chinese Embassy in the United States declined to comment.

Reuters quoted Vietnamese officials on Thursday as saying Li Keqiang abruptly canceled last week’s meeting due to “health conditions.” On the eve of Qin’s ouster, China’s Foreign Ministry explained that his mysterious absence from official events was health-related.

In 2018, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Li Keqiang over China’s purchases of Russian weapons while he was head of the People’s Liberation Army’s main arms procurement and research and development department.

China has refused to arrange any meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Li Keqiang, while Washington continues to impose sanctions on the general, a situation that has further worsened an already sluggish bilateral military relationship.

Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, spoke last week Posted on Xformerly of Twitter, said the Chinese government “is now like an Agatha Christie novel.” And then it’s gone”.

“First there was the disappearance of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, then the disappearance of Rocket Force commanders and fighters, and now Defense Minister Lee Shang-bok has not been seen in public for two weeks,” he wrote under the hashtag #MysteryInBeijingBuilding.

The investigation into Li has raised questions about the effectiveness of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign against China’s military, as chairman of China’s Central Military Commission.

“If the defense minister and Rocket Force leader were removed because of corruption, it demonstrates serious flaws in the vetting process used by Xi Jinping to select senior officials and shows that despite Xi Jinping’s decade-long anti-corruption campaign, corruption continues to exist,” Dennis said. It’s still prevalent within the system.” Wilder is a former senior PLA expert at the CIA.

Wilder added that the Equipment Department, formerly known as the General Armament Department, has long been the “most serious corruption phenomenon” within the Chinese military.

Li Keqiang’s removal could help U.S.-China military relations by removing obstacles that China insists are blocking a meeting with Austin, said Glasworth, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund.

Glaser added: “I don’t think this calls into question Xi Jinping’s control of the military, but it should remind us how much corruption exists in the system.”