{"id":2031639,"date":"2023-09-14T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T15:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-disappears-second-government-minister\/"},"modified":"2023-09-14T11:09:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T15:09:40","slug":"china-disappears-second-government-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-disappears-second-government-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s Second Government Minister Vanishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fchina-disappears-second-government-minister%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2031639&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu Abruptly Cancels Meeting with Vietnamese Leaders<\/h2>\n<div>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Chinese <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-has-yet-to-call-israels-netanyahu\/\" title=\"Biden Has Yet To Call Israel\u2019s Netanyahu\">defense minister<\/a> Li Shangfu abruptly pulled \u200cout of a \u2064meeting with Vietnamese defense leaders last week, \u200dthree officials with direct knowledge of the\u2062 matter said, \u2064amid\u200d questions about his more than\u200b two-weeks-long absence from \u2062public \u200dview.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Reasons\u2063 for Cancellation<\/h3>\n<p>Li, \u206465, was due to attend an annual gathering on \u200bdefense cooperation\u200d hosted\u2062 by Vietnam on its border with \u200cChina on Sept. 7-8 but the\u200c meeting was postponed after Beijing told Hanoi\u2064 days before the\u200b event \u2062that the minister had a &#8220;health condition,&#8221; two \u200cVietnamese officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The sudden postponement \u200bof the meeting and the reasons \u2063cited by China\u200c are being reported by\u200d Reuters for the first time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Concerns \u200band Speculations<\/h3>\n<p>The \u2064abrupt cancellation \u2064of Li&#8217;s trip follows \u2063China&#8217;s unexplained replacement of Foreign Minister\u2064 Qin Gang in July after a \u200bprolonged absence\u200d from public view and a \u200cshake-up \u2064of the \u200bleadership of the People&#8217;s Liberation Army&#8217;s elite Rocket Force in recent months, moves that have raised questions about\u200d the Chinese leadership&#8217;s decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>Li was \u200bappointed to his post in March. He is \u2062watched closely by diplomats and other observers because, like Qin, he is\u2062 also one of China&#8217;s five State Councillors, a cabinet position that\u2062 ranks higher \u200dthan a regular minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>International Reactions<\/h3>\n<p>A U.S. official, \u2063on \u200ccondition of anonymity, \u2063said \u200cWashington\u200c was aware of Li&#8217;s cancelled\u200b meetings\u200b with the Vietnamese. U.S. President \u200cJoe Biden \u2062visited Hanoi last week, where the two sides inked a historic upgrade of their partnership.<\/p>\n<p>Li&#8217;s \u200dprolonged absence from public \u200bview has drawn some comment. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sept. 8: &#8220;First, Foreign Minister Qin Gang goes missing, then \u2062the\u2064 Rocket Force commanders \u200cgo missing, and now Defense Minister \u2062Li \u2063Shangfu hasn&#8217;t been seen in public \u200bfor two weeks. Who&#8217;s going to win this unemployment race? China&#8217;s youth \u200cor\u2062 Xi&#8217;s cabinet?&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Background and Controversies<\/h3>\n<p>Li was last seen in Beijing on \u200dAug. 29 delivering a key-note address at a security forum with African nations. Before that, \u2063he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-disappears-second-government-minister\/\" title=\"China's Second Government Minister Vanishes\">held\u2064 high-level\u2064 meetings<\/a> \u2062during a trip \u200bto Russia and Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s defense minister is\u200b mainly responsible for \u2064defense diplomacy and does not command combat forces. He has a less public profile than the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/off-to-a-bad-start-putin-schools-biden-with-one-phone-call\/\" title=\"Off to a Bad START: Putin Schools Biden with One Phone Call\">foreign minister<\/a>, who \u200dfrequently appears in state media.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Li&#8217;s disappearance, following so shortly after Qin, speaks to how \u200bmysterious Chinese elite \u2064politics \u2064can be to the outside world,&#8221; \u200bsaid Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Sanctions and \u2062International Relations<\/h3>\n<p>Li was sanctioned by the U.S. in\u200b 2018 for buying \u2064weapons from \u2062Russia&#8217;s largest arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese \u2064officials have \u2064repeatedly said they want those sanctions dropped to facilitate\u200c better discussions between\u200b the\u2062 two sides&#8217; militaries. U.S. Defense Secretary \u200bLloyd Austin attempted talks\u2063 with Li during a defense conference in Singapore\u2062 in June, \u200dbut did\u200c not get\u200b beyond a handshake.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, Li \u200cwas named \u2063deputy commander of the military&#8217;s then-new Strategic Support Force &#8211; an elite body tasked with \u2063accelerating the development of space\u2062 and cyber warfare \u200ccapabilities. \u200cHe then headed the military&#8217;s procurement unit \u2063from 2017 until he became\u2062 defense minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Published under:<\/strong> <span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/tag\/china\/\" title=\"View all posts in China\">China<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu withdrew from a meeting with Vietnamese defense leaders, raising concerns about his prolonged absence. This comes after his recent attendance at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2031640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2031640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}