Ten persons with knowledge of the situation claim that Chinese authorities have started an inquiry into Defence Minister Li Shangfu, who has been AWOL from the public eye for more than two weeks.
A regional security officer and three people in close contact with the Chinese military claim that the probe into Li has to do with the purchase of military hardware. Reuters was unable to learn anything about the specific equipment purchases that were being investigated.
Two of the individuals in direct contact with the military claim that eight high-ranking members of the Chinese military’s procurement arm, which Li oversaw from 2017 to 2022, are also being looked at.
Investigation into Li Shangfu
The investigation of Li, who was named defence minister in March, and the eight officials is being conducted by the military’s potent disciplinary inspection committee, according to the two persons.
Based on conversations with sources who frequently engage with senior Chinese political and defence authorities as well as with regional officials who have intimate understanding of Chinese politics, Reuters has examined the charges against Li in detail as well as the timing of the investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters on Friday that she was unaware of the circumstance. Responses to inquiries for comment from the State Council and the Defence Ministry were delayed. Li was not immediately reachable.
Foreign nationals question Li’s whereabouts
Image source: Reuters
U.S. officials were cited by The Financial Times as saying that the American administration thinks Li is the subject of an investigation. He was taken away last week for questioning, according to a source close to Beijing’s decision-making, according to the Wall Street Journal.
When contacted for comment regarding media claims that U.S. intelligence authorities thought Li was being looked into for corruption, the U.S. State Department did not answer right away.
Rahm Emanuel, the American ambassador to Japan, asked whether Li was under house arrest on X, a platform that was formerly Twitter, on Friday. There were no immediate updates from the American embassy in Tokyo.
Li gave a keynote address at a security summit with African countries on August 29 in Beijing, where he was last seen. He also travelled to Russia and Belarus earlier in the month.
According to two foreign security sources briefed on the subject and a person in direct contact with the military, the investigation into the minister began soon after his return from that trip.
According to a Vietnamese official, his ministry cancelled Li’s trip to Vietnam by September 3 in time for the annual defence summit between the two nations, which was set to take place on September 7-8. According to two Vietnamese officials, Beijing informed Hanoi officials that Li had a “health condition” when it postponed the occasion.
Regional diplomats and social media users began to wonder where Li was when he failed to show up for the meeting and engaged in conversations with a senior Singaporean military official in China the same week.
China’s sudden leadership transitions
Some experts and diplomats have expressed concern about China’s sudden leadership transitions at a time when its economy is still trying to recover from strict economic closures and its ties with the United States have become even more strained over a number of topics.
With less than a year on the job, Li and Qin’s absence was particularly remarkable because they were both regarded by watchers of Chinese politics as being personally chosen by President Xi Jinping. The two individuals had prominent positions in front of the public and are also two of China’s five state councillors, a position higher than that of a regular minister.
