Speculation about the fall from grace of Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu has been confirmed. President Xi Jinping signed his dismissal this Tuesday, which also implies his dismissal as State Councilor and his position in the Central Military Commission. Shangfu, who was one of the heads of the Chinese space program, was last seen in August, at a Sino-African defense forum.
Last month, the United States ambassador in Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, was the first to warn about the alleged purge, which added to the mystery about the sudden dismissal of Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who has also disappeared since the beginning of summer.
Although Qin was replaced by his predecessor, Wang Yi, months ago, the order signed today by the Chinese president also relieves him of the position of State Councilor. In his case, it is an open secret that his extramarital relationship with a famous Chinese television correspondent, Fu Xiaotian, from the Phoenix channel, has weighed heavily, with whom he would have conceived a child.
In the case of Li, there is speculation that his participation in multi-million dollar purchases from Russia – of S-400 anti-aircraft batteries and Sukhoi fighter-bombers – would not have surpassed the fight against corruption championed by Xi. These purchases, on the other hand, placed him on the list of those sanctioned by the US during Donald Trump’s government, which would have subsequently made it difficult for some of his trips abroad. Relieving him eliminates this problem.
General Shangfu played an important role, over the last two decades, in the Chinese satellite program and lunar exploration program. His eclipse, like Qin’s, underscores Xi Jinping’s control over the upper echelons of both the state and the People’s Liberation Army. Since the time of Mao, no general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party had accumulated so much power, nor so much deference.
