New Delhi: US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Friday called attention to growing rumours of political instability in China, posting on social media platform X that China’s Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu has not been seen in “public” for the last two weeks.
“President Xi’s cabinet lineup is now resembling Agatha Christie’s novel And Then There Were None. First, Foreign Minister Qin Gang goes missing, then the Rocket Force commanders go missing, and now Defense Minister Li Shangfu hasn’t been seen in public for two weeks. Who’s going to win this unemployment race? China’s youth or Xi’s cabinet? #MysteryInBeijingBuilding,” Emanuel posted on X.
Emanuel also refers to the former foreign minister of China, Qin Gang, who has not been seen in public since 25 June.
As ThePrint reported earlier, Qin, who is considered close to President Xi Jinping, rose through the ranks before he was appointed as the foreign minister in December last year. On 25 July, he was sacked from his post, with no reasons given the state-run media had reported at the time.
Similarly, Emanuel in his post highlights the missing commanders of the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF).
In August, President Xi replaced two generals of the PLARF, a force responsible for handling the country’s nuclear and missile arsenal. As per Chinese media reports, PLARF chief Gen. Li Yuchao and his deputy Liu Guangbin were replaced by a naval officer and an air force officer, respectively. The two former generals of the PLARF were reportedly not seen in public for months.
The president of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Military Court, Cheng Dongfang was also removed from his position, barely eight months in office as reported by ThePrint.
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Attempting a thaw
US President Joe Biden, who is currently in New Delhi for the G20 summit, has commented that he is ‘disappointed’ that President Xi will not be attending the G20 summit.
Since June, senior US officials — Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, presidential climate envoy John Kerry and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo — have all visited Beijing in a three-month diplomatic blitz in an attempt to thaw tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
But an escalation in trade tensions, including China’s ban on the usage of Apple iPhones by central government officials, local government workers and state-owned companies, apart from the restriction of high level technology and tariffs has seen no end in the short-term.
This is not Emanuel’s first set of comments against China since he became the Ambassador to Japan. Earlier on 29 August 2023, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he took aim at China’s leadership.
“Now you can sit there and say, ‘Well, we’d like to have a great relationship,’ but if they’re going to keep the Communist Party, and specifically under Xi, use lying and cheating as a modus operandi of the state and its legitimacy, then you would be a fool to go into that discussion negotiation not cognizant of what they’re doing,” said Emanuel in the interview.
(Edited by Tony Rai)