Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was last seen at a security forum with African countries in Beijing on August 29. Li, who made the opening speech here, did not appear in public afterwards.
CLAIMS SPREAD FAST
In the following period, Li’s absence from important contacts such as meetings with the defense ministers of Vietnam and Singapore increased suspicions. Many claims have been made, ranging from Li being under investigation to being under house arrest.
AMBASSADOR ALSO SHARED
Washington’s Ambassador to Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, said in his post on the subject, “There has been no news from Defense Minister Li Shangfu for 3 weeks. He did not participate in his trip to Vietnam. Now, he did not come to the planned meeting with the Commander of the Singapore Naval Forces because he was under house arrest.”
IT HAS HAPPENED TO THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BEFORE
Previously, Foreign Minister Qin Gang was not seen in public for a long time and then left office.
NEWS CAME FROM BEIJING
News came from Li Shangfu, whose situation was a matter of curiosity. According to AA, Shangfu was dismissed. According to state television CCTV, the decision about Li was taken at the session held in Beijing by the Central Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislative body. Committee members voted to remove Li from his post as minister. It has not yet been announced who will replace Li. It was reported that new names were appointed to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology at the meeting.
“CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION” CLAIM
In its news published on September 15, the US newspaper Washington Post claimed that a “corruption investigation” had been launched against Li, based on “unnamed American officials”, and that the Minister had been dismissed.
It was claimed in the news that the investigation was linked to corruption in the procurement of military hardware.
At the end of July, about a month before Li’s disappearance, the Hardware Development Department of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced that an investigation had been launched due to “regulatory and disciplinary violations” in the military hardware procurement and tender processes. He had called for a report regarding the “improperties” detected as of .
Before taking office, former Defense Minister Li served as head of the Hardware Development Department of the Central Military Commission between 2017 and 2022. While serving in this position, Li was placed on the sanctions list by the United States in 2018, on the grounds that he had a role in the purchase of Su-35 warplanes and the S-400 missile defense system from Russia.
HIS FATHER WAS A MEMBER OF THE RED ARMY
Coming from a family that belonged to the early cadres of the Communist revolution in China, Li’s father was a senior officer in the Red Army Railway Force.
Li, who was born in 1958 in Chingdu, the center of Sichuan province in the north of the country, studied aerospace engineering at the National Defense Technology University.
Li, who started working at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichuan province after his graduation, was promoted to commander of the center in 2003, and during this period, he coordinated many launches of the Zhang-1 and Zhang-2 reconnaissance vehicles, which were part of China’s lunar exploration program.
Li became Chief of Staff of the Central Military Commission, then known as the “General Armaments Department”, in 2013, and Deputy Commander in 2014.
Li, who was appointed deputy commander of the PLA’s newly established Strategic Support Force responsible for space, cyberspace and electronic warfare in 2016, became the head of the Central Military Commission, newly named “Hardware Development Department”, in September 2017.
Li, who was elected to the Central Committee of the party’s highest executive body at the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017, was elected as a member of the Central Military Commission at the 20th CPC National Congress in October 2022, and was then appointed as the minister of defense at the 14th National People’s Congress in March 2023.