By Neeraj Rajput
The mystery shrouding the disappearance of former Chinese Minister Qin Gang and losing the coveted post in the CCP Government is yet to be out but another high profile minister of Xi Jinping has also now gone missing from the public life. He is the heavy-weight Defence Minister of China, Gen Li Shangfu.
Li Shangfu’s absence came to the fore when he didn’t attend the much awaited border ceremony hosted by Vietnam along the China border on 7-8 September. Both the neighbouring countries share a 1300 Km long border, which was a theatre of conflict between them in late 70s. According to the Chinese Defence Ministry, Li didn’t attend the two day border event due to “health conditions.”
On Aug 29, both the countries had announced a two-day event along the border to “promote the friendship, solidarity, and substantive cooperation between their border defence forces, administrations of border localities, and local residents so as to build a joint border of peace, friendship, stability, cooperation, and development.”
Interestingly, “health” was the reason given by the Chinese Foreign Ministry during the early days of the disappearance of Qin in the month of June this year. Qin had to lose his seat in the Xi cabinet after his alleged ‘friendship’ with a Hong Kong based news anchor—who some global news platforms have termed her as a double-agent of the UK (though no official confirmation, as usual).
Qin has now been replaced by his predecessor and a senior diplomat Wang Yi from whom he had taken the charge of Foreign Ministry barely six months back in January this year. Since then, Qin has not been seen in public and remains elusive even from the Chinese (state sponsored) media.
Li Shangfu, like Qin Gang, was a ‘blue-eyed’ minister of Xi Jinping who was made the Defence Minister in January this year when Xi assumed charge of the President for a third term.
India Watching
So, what could be the reason behind the absence of the Defence Minister of a country, which has the largest army on earth, from the past 20 days or so. Li was last seen on August 29 during the China-Africa Summit in Beijing. He had come to India in the month of April to take part in the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Defence Ministers summit. India, Russia, Pakistan and a host of central Asian countries are part of SCO, besides China.
Li’s visit to India was the first by any Defence Minister of China after the tense relations between the two Asian giants post-Galwan Valley clash in June ‘20. A military aerospace engineer by profession, Li was part of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), the highest body dealing with the armed forces, since October last year.
The relations between India and China are still strained after 19 rounds of military level talks. While the dispute at five major flash points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh have been resolved in the past three years, few ‘legacy’ disputes still remain unresolved. India has also accused Chinese PLA of amassing around one lac soldiers along the 750 Km long LAC (disputed border) in Eastern Ladakh besides tanks, artillery, rocket forces and fighter jets. India’s Eastern Ladakh adjoins Aksai Chin and Tibet region of China. China had annexed Aksai Chin from India during the ‘62 war and thus still remains close to the heart of every Indian. Galwan Valley is sandwiched between Eastern Ladakh and Aksai China. India also has ‘mirror deployment’ of armed forces along the LAC.
Li had also attended the annual ‘Shangri-La Dialogue’ in Singapore in the month of June where he had talked about war with the US as an ‘unbearable disaster’ for both the countries.
The missing Chinese Defence Minister came into limelight when the US put sanctions against him (Li) for military deals with Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine for the past 18 months.
Taiwan-China
But Li had gone missing at a time when China’s aggressive behaviour towards Taiwan was an open secret. Daily, hordes of Chinese fighter jets and warships violate Taiwanese air-space and maritime boundaries. Experts believe such violations and military exercises are drills for actual conquest of Taiwan in the months to come.
Some reports also suggest that Li is allegedly found involved in corruption cases regarding military procurements. As Defence Minister of China, all the defence production and procurements are responsibility of Li. The actual operational military power lies with the Chairman of the CMC, who is incidentally the President Xi.
In the month of May, Chinese PLA had issued a set of rules controlling the social life of the military commanders. The Chinese PLA Daily newspaper had published the report that these rules included “specific requirements and concrete demands in eight areas” without giving further details. But later it came to fore that these rules included code of conduct dealing with CCP (Chinese Communist Party) officials, bureaucrats, foreign institutions and media.
Is this the first time?
This is not the first time senior CCP officials have gone missing, later to be found involved in some serious offence. During the first term of Xi, several officials (including military) went missing initially and later found to be in jail in cases of corruption, embezzlement and other vice activities. Even China’s richest man Jack Ma had also gone missing for weeks during the second term of Xi when the former (Ma) had given a public speech criticising China’s banking and financial regulations.
Recently, two top military commanders of the PLA’s Rocket Force were dismissed from their services (some believe arrested) for alleged nepotism or corruption charges.
China was already an authoritarian state since the time of Mao Zedong but under Xi it is moving to a totalitarian regime. Xi not only wants to have complete control over foreign and military related affairs but is also conscious of his image that it is not tarnished with some allegations. But it also suggests everything is not in order in China, be it the economy which has shown signs of sluggishness or the political landscape. So, who would be the next to disappear in Xi’s land !
The author is Editor in Chief of Final Assault and a Senior War-journalist having more than two decades of multimedia experience with specialization in defence, conflict, security, strategic affairs & geopolitics. He has done ground reporting from the Korean Peninsula and his book on the Russia-Ukraine war, ‘Operation Z Live’ in Hindi has just been released.
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