China’s Communist Party removes ex-foreign, defence ministers from top body

BEIJING – China’s Communist Party removed its former foreign and defence ministers  – Mr Qin Gang and Mr Li Shangfu  –  from its Central Committee on July 18, during a major meeting of the party’s largest top-level executive body.

The two officials were removed from their jobs in 2023.

The ruling Communist Party ended its long-delayed third plenum on July 18, a meeting of the 205-member Central Committee held roughly once every five years to map out the general direction of the country’s long-term social and economic policies.

Removals of Central Committee members are also approved at such meetings.

The Central Committee said in a communique released by Xinhua that it accepted Mr Qin’s resignation from the body, and confirmed the expulsion of Mr Li Shangfu, 66, as well as former PLA Rocket Force commander Li Yuchao, 61, from the Communist Party for “serious violations of discipline and law”, a euphemism for corruption.

Mr Li Yuchao was also removed from his job in 2023.

The decision to expel Mr Li Shangfu and Mr Li Yuchao from the Communist Party and, by extansion, its Central Committee suggests harsher political consequences for the pair, compared with Mr Qin’s resignation. Mr Qin remains a Communist Party member.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has spearheaded a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign since becoming leader of the Communist Party in 2012. In the first half of 2024 alone, the party’s top graft watchdog has investigated 36 officials at the vice-ministerial level and above.

Mr Li Shangfu was

expelled from the Communist Party

in June on bribery charges, as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) undergoes a sweeping anti-corruption purge that has implicated two former defence ministers and nine top generals.

Mr Qin was

abruptly dismissed as foreign minister

in July 2023 after seven months in the job, and has not been seen in public since.

Mr Li Shangfu was ousted as defence minister in October 2023 without explanation, before being placed under a graft investigation. He was removed from the party’s highest military command body in February.

Mr Li Yuchao was replaced last July during a shake-up of the Rocket Force leadership, which also saw its political commissar dismissed. He oversaw a highly strategic unit of the PLA responsible for the nation’s conventional and nuclear missile arsenal.

Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian, 61, who has been under investigation for corruption since May, remains a member of the Central Committee.

Three alternate Central Committee members were appointed as full members, according to the communique: Anhui provincial Communist Party personnel boss Ding Xiangqun, Sichuan provincial Communist Party personnel boss Yu Lijun and Beijing Normal University president Yu Jihong.

According to past convention, the Central Committee appoints some of its 171 alternate members to fill in vacancies by order of the number of votes they received.

The new appointments this time skipped PLA Rocket Force deputy political commissar Ding Xingnong, who would have been second in line to join the Central Committee.

Former Central Committee alternate member and PLA Rocket Force chief of staff Sun Jinming was also expelled from the Communist Party for corruption, the communique said. REUTERS