China’s Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu, who has been missing from public view for several weeks, was formally ousted from his post Tuesday, according to China’s official state media.
No reason was given for Gen. Li’s dismissal, which was announced at the same time that former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, another senior party official who dropped out of sight earlier this year, was officially removed from his post as well.
The ouster of the 65-year-old Gen. Li reflects clear internal turbulence within the Chinese military and political establishment. The defense minister was among several officials targeted in an ongoing shakeup by Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party leadership, according to a senior Biden administration official.
The abrupt personnel moves have also raised questions about whether Mr. Xi was using a longstanding campaign against high-level corruption in the party to purge potential rivals to his power.
“Eight of the most senior 10 officials in the [People’s Liberation Army] are either under investigation or were dismissed,” the official said, speaking on background.
Last summer, three officials in the powerful PLA Rocket Force, which oversees the country’s nuclear forces, were removed from their posts. They included the missile force’s commander, Gen. Li Yuchao, and deputy commander, Gen. Liu Gukangbin. Both also had disappeared from public view for months prior to their ouster.
A third Rocket Force official, Lt. Gen Zhang Zhenzhong, a deputy commander, also was dismissed.
The firing of Gen. Li and Mr. Qin came after a meeting of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp legislature of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, the official Xinhua news agency reported. No immediate replacement for Gen. Li was named.
Mr. Qin was replaced by Wang Yi, who is scheduled to make a visit to Washington this week for talks with senior U.S. officials. Mr. Wang is expected to discuss a visit next month by Mr. Xi to a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco next month being hosted by President Biden. Many expect the two leaders to have their first personal meeting since a discussion nearly a year ago on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia.
A senior Biden administration official said Mr. Xi will likely attend the APEC summit, although his stature at the meeting will likely be diminished due to China’s mounting economic and social problems in recent months, which have called into question Mr. Xi’s stewardship of the economy.
The dismissal of Gen. Li, who was sanctioned by the U.S. government in 2018 for his role in overseeing the purchase of Russian fighter jets and surface-to-air missile systems, also included his ouster from the Central Military Commission, the party’s organ that controls the People’s Liberation Army. As of Tuesday, the commission website still listed Gen. Li as a member.
The firing leaves China without an official defense minister just days before the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a major multilateral forum that a delegation from the Pentagon was slated to attend.
U.S. officials, who were repeatedly blocked when seeking to open a dialogue between Gen. Li and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, declined to comment on the latest shakeup in Mr. Xi’s military.
“For any announcements regarding PLA personnel, I’ll refer you to the PRC,” a Defense Department official told the Voice of America on background Tuesday. “What I will say is that the DoD continues to believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between the United States and the PRC across multiple levels, including the senior-most levels.”
The recent dismissals of Chinese generals represent the largest purge in nearly a decade. Since coming to power in 2012, Mr. Xi has targeted elements of the military and within the CCP in what analysts say is a bid to consolidate power and remove potential rivals from office.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell said the removal of Gen. Li provides Mr. Xi with an opportunity to exploit the Biden administration’s attempts to renew past unfettered engagement policies toward China after bilateral relations plunged to a new low in recent years.
“Until now, Xi has kept the mil-to-mil element of the state-to-state relations off the table,” Capt. Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence director, said. “Now with a new, and unsanctioned defense minister, Xi will be able to tempt the Biden administration to further their agenda of unconstrained engagement with Beijing. Wiser counsel would consider the implications of going further into the spider’s web.”
Gen. Li was appointed defense minister in March. He mysteriously dropped out of public view after giving an Aug. 29 speech to the China-Africa Peace and Security Forum in Beijing.
Mr. Qin disappeared from public view in June and was removed from office a month later. His political demise was a surprise as he was viewed as a close aide to Mr. Xi and had previously served as China’s ambassador to the United States.
The Pentagon’s latest annual report on the Chinese military describes Gen. Li as the PLA’s third-ranking officer, with a primary job of managing the military’s relations with state bureaucracies and foreign militaries. Unlike the U.S. defense secretary, the Chinese defense minister is not part of the chain of command and his main influence comes from membership in the Central Military Commission and State Council.
Prior to his appointment as defense minister, Gen. Li was in charge of the military’s arms-buying unit called the Equipment Development Department. Gen. Li was also deputy commander of the PLA Strategic Support Force and handled space operations at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.