China moves in mysterious ways! Recall former defence minister Li Shangfu, who abruptly disappeared from public view last October. Until now China has said nothing about why he was removed. Now, four months later, reports say his name has disappeared from the website of the defence ministry, perhaps an indication that he’s finally done and dusted.
Li had a short tenure as defence minister. He was picked for the job last year in March, rumour has it that it was cleared by President Xi Jinping itself. But something happened and in October he vanished amid reports that he had fallen foul of the Discipline and Inspection Commission. He was stripped of his title of state councillor and lost his place in the Central Military Commission, the apex body chaired by Xi himself that oversees all things military.
Was he found complicit in acts of corruption? Was it something else that would have triggered his departure, perhaps related to national security, it’s not clear. China for its part has preferred to say nothing. But the latest development does suggest he will not be coming back, at least not during the tenure of the current president.
In the meantime, Xi got himself a new defence minister last December. Navy veteran Dong Jun moved into Li Shangfu’s job.
The larger story is the number of senior officials who have been swept away in Xi’s purge of the military establishment. Last December, according to Reuters reports, nine senior officers including three vice commanders of the Strategic Rocket Force, a former PLA-Air Force chief and a naval commander responsible for the South China Sea, were purged.
The shake-up in the Rocket Force suggested widespread corruption in procurement. It may have come as a shock to the political establishment given the enormous resources invested in that arm. For that matter, Xi has spent billions of dollars in modernising the military and the purge may have underscored an important question: how much of that money was well spent?
