New Delhi: China has sacked Defence Minister General Li Shangfu, who was missing in public since August, over alleged corruption charges in what happens to be the second leadership shake-up in three months.
Beijing is yet to announce the replacement for Li, who rose through the ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to become the defence minister in March.
In July, then Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who had not been seen in public since 25 June, was sacked with no reasons given.
Giving details of the latest sacking, South China Morning Post quoted Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency saying that Li had been removed, without explanation.
The news came after weeks of speculation over the US-sanctioned general’s fate since he has not been seen in public since the end of August.
The South China Morning Post reported that the decision to remove him was approved by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.
Li was under investigation in a broad probe over procurement of military equipment, Reuters reported in September.
In the Chinese system, all ministers are not members of the state council. However, both Li and Qin are state councillors — a senior position in the State Council, China’s cabinet.
Li, 65, is a member of the Central Military Commission – the PLA’s ruling body. In his career within the PLA, Li has overseen several key projects and is the first from its Strategic Support Force (SSF) to be part of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC).
The SSF was created in 2015 as part of plans to restructure military management to focus on space, cyber, political and electronic warfare.
His ranking within the CMC is only behind its chairman and Chinese President Xi Jinping and vice-chairmen Zhang Youxia and He Weidong.
The last public appearance of Li was at the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum in Beijing on 29 August. He had delivered the keynote address there.
He was not part of the delegation-level talks with Vietnam early September. He was also missing from a major Chinese military meeting and his name was not included in a report of the meeting in mid September.
Li had visited India in April and had held delegation-level talks with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Xi’s men are falling off the wall one by one. Even extreme loyalty doesn’t guarantee safety