The expected purge of Li Shangfu comes after the foreign minister and two top military leaders were sacked, heightening concerns about how China’s foreign policy is being managed.
, its premier military unit in charge of the country’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and conventional missiles.
Beijing has not publicly explained Li’s absence, and Chinese military websites still list him as minister of defense. Traditionally, when Chinese officials are ousted for corruption or other disciplinary crimes, Beijing refrains from citing a reason, and confirmation can take months or even years.When Qin abruptly disappeared from sight in June, Beijing’s foreign ministry steadfastly refused to comment, instead scrubbing his existence from its Chinese-language website.
The tumult of Xi’s domestic problems was likely a factor in his skipping the G-20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi last week, analysts said.With the dismissals of top diplomatic and military officials, “it seems like there’s a lot of churn and instability in who’s representing and speaking for China on the world stage,” said Sheena Chestnut Greitens, director of the Asia Policy Program at the University of Texas, Austin.
In recent months, the procurement agency announced it had launched an investigation into alleged violations during a period that coincided with Li’s tenure as director. The alleged corruption calls into question the professionalism and readiness of the PLA, he said. “We tend to judge the PLA by the equipment they’ve been buying. But this leads to questions about the quality and reliability of the officer corps. Are they working in the national defense or lining their own pockets?”Corruption has long plagued China’s military.
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