Chinese President Xi Jinping has formally dismissed his defense minister, Li Shangfu, and ejected former foreign minister Qin Gang from the State Council—China's rough equivalent to a Cabinet—months after the pair vanished from the public eye.
The announcement, made Tuesday on state broadcaster CCTV, followed many weeks of speculation over the officials' sudden disappearance. Li served as the country's defense chief for fewer than six months and has not appeared in public since the end of August. Qin was ousted without explanation in July and replaced by veteran diplomat Wang Yi.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Newsweek: "We are aware of the reports regarding Li Shangfu's removal as Defense Minister and State Councilor. We do not have any comments." She added that the department continues to stress to China the importance of keeping military-to-military communication channels open.
Taiwan's intelligence chief Tsai Ming-yen said earlier this month that his sources had confirmed suspicions Li and Qin, whom Xi had handpicked for their roles, were under official investigation.
In the weeks between Qin and Li's disappearance, Xi also replaced the top two officials of the military's Rocket Force.
Previously serving as Beijing's ambassador to the U.S. from 2021 until January, Qin faces a probe into sensitive information potentially leaked during an alleged affair with a Chinese television host during his time in Washington, Tsai said. Li is suspected of corruption dating back to his chairmanship of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department.
The CCTV report also announced that Yin Hejun had been appointed China's new minister of science and technology. Technocrat Lan Fo'an has been tapped to helm the Ministry of Finance. Lan will have his work cut out as China prepares to inject fiscal stimulus into its slowing economy.
The State Council Information Office, which handles information inquiries related to the Chinese central government, did not respond to Newsweek's requests for comment by publication time.
Evan Ellis, a Latin America research professor at the U.S. Army War College who specializes in China's activities in that region, pointed out that China had severed formal lines of communication amid worsening ties.
"Li's removal will complicate those ongoing U.S. attempts to re-establish that important dialogue with the People's Republic of China in the defense sphere in the context of these increasing tensions," he told Newsweek, adding that the current lack of leader-to-leader communication on matters of defense was practically unprecedented, even during the Cold War.
"While Li Shangfu's removal is certainly interesting given other recent high-level removals in the PRC's national security apparatus, I doubt that it will have much effect in the near term on the US-China defense relationship—mostly because of a fact made clear in a recent [Department of Defense] report on the Chinese military: they're not interested in talking," Thomas Shugart, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, told Newsweek.
Current Foreign Minister Wang Yi is heading to Washington for a state visit from Thursday to Saturday at the invitation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Wang's visit is widely regarded as a prelude to a possible Biden-Xi meeting, most likely during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco next month.
Updated 12:40 p.m. 10/26/23 with statements from Thomas Shugart and the State Department.
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Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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