China’s Defense Minister Is Only The Latest Victim Of Beijing’s Vanishing Act

The recent disappearance of China’s defense minister Li Shangfu is the latest in a long line of mysterious absences involving high profile Chinese figures.

U.S. intelligence said that Li, who hadn’t been seen in public for weeks, had been removed from his post as defense minister and is currently under questioning by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Li’s alleged disappearance adds to a list of other Chinese politicians and businessmen who have vanished in recent history, with some of them eventually returning to public eye, and others who continue to remain missing.

One such example is Qin Gang, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of China. Considered a rising star in Chinese politics and a close ally to president Xi Jinping, Qin had previously served as Ambassador to the United States from July 2021 to 2022, and was then promoted to foreign minister position in late 2022, according to the Washington Post.

Qin was last seen in public on June 25 while meeting Russian, Vietnamese and Sri Lankan diplomats in Beijing, according to the Post. Throughout the rest of June and part of July, Qin was absent from all of his meetings due to unspecified “health reasons,” and his predecessor Wang Yi attended the meetings in his absence.