China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu has not been seen for nearly three weeks amid speculation he may be under investigation, just the latest case of a senior Communist Party official disappearing from public view since July, as did former foreign minister Qin Gang, and he was eventually replaced, The Guardian reported.

General Li Shanfu was last seen on August 29 when he delivered a speech at the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum. His last foreign visit was to Moscow and Minsk in mid-August, where he met with Russian officials on the sidelines of a security conference and with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, news.ro notes.

According to Reuters, Lee canceled at the last minute a meeting with Vietnamese defense officials last week. Two Vietnamese officials told the news agency that Beijing had postponed the annual meeting.

The US believes that the Chinese official is under investigation

On Friday, the Financial Times reported, citing senior officials, that the US government believed Lee was under investigation.

Rahm Emanuel, the US ambassador to Japan, has been particularly vocal about this mystery, comparing Xi Jinping’s cabinet to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None – no)

On Friday, the ambassador wrote on X/Twitter that Lee did not show up for a scheduled meeting with the commander of the Singapore Navy because he was “placed under house arrest.” He did not specify the source of these claims. Rahm Emanuel wrote: “First: Defense Minister Li Shangfu has not been seen or heard from for 3 weeks. 2: He did not show up during his visit to Vietnam. Now: He’s missing a scheduled meeting with Singapore’s Navy chief because he’s been placed under house arrest????”

The US Embassy in Tokyo said it had no comment at this time, Reuters reported.

The Washington Post, citing two US officials, wrote on Friday that Li Shangfu is being investigated for corruption and will likely be removed from his post.

The foreign minister disappeared before being replaced

Li’s disappearance follows the surprise removal of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in July, also after a week’s absence. Since then, there has been no information or sign of him.

Xi also replaced two senior missile force generals in early August in a major reshuffle of the military wing’s leadership. The former commander, Li Yuchao, had not appeared in public for weeks before, and there was no explanation for his removal.

Since coming to power in 2013, Xi has led a broad and relentless anti-corruption campaign that analysts say has also targeted political opponents. A special suppression of corruption was carried out in the People’s Liberation Army (NLA). But after more than a decade in power and the biggest consolidation of power around a Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the senior ranks are now almost all Xi allies. “It would be great if in Xi’s 11th year at the helm of the PLA there would still be corruption at this high level, and for the missile force officers and Li Shanfu, Xi cannot blame his predecessors,” China analyst Bill Bishop commented. on Friday.

Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, said that Li and Qin were “the international community’s gateway into an opaque system” and that their disappearance was troubling. “It’s kind of shocking that in three months both the secretary of state and the secretary of defense have disappeared in China,” said Thompson, a former US State Department official. “These are two important foreign interlocutors, but China does not feel obliged to inform the international community how and why (its ministers left). This shows how closed China has become,” the former diplomat said.

Lee’s absence is being watched closely, especially by the US

Lee, 65, was appointed defense minister in March 2023 after serving for several months as the top member of the Central Military Commission, which oversees the armed forces. In 2018, as the director of the military equipment development department, he was put on the US sanctions list due to the purchase of Russian military equipment by the Chinese military.

Lee’s absence is being watched particularly closely by the United States, which has refused to lift sanctions imposed in 2018. Chinese officials have repeatedly said they want these sanctions lifted to facilitate better negotiations between the militaries of both sides. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to speak with Lee during a defense conference in Singapore in June, but was unable to get beyond a handshake.

Wen-Tie Sun, a political scientist at the Australian National University, said that while Li had been an “obstacle” in US-China military relations, his unexplained absence was problematic for China’s international relations. “Other countries will ask themselves one main thing: who to turn to when they want to establish a military dialogue with China,” he emphasized.

Lee’s biography and title were still online Friday morning. When Qin Gang was ousted, references to him as foreign minister were quickly removed from Chinese websites, although some were later reinstated, The Guardian recalls.

In China’s political system, ministers are not the highest in any portfolio. As defense minister, Lee reports to two vice presidents of the Central Military Commission, who then report to Xi. However, he is also one of the five Councilors of State, a position that has a higher rank than an ordinary minister.

As for Qin, he remained a state adviser.