No booze, no cigarettes: China orders officials to cut costs amid economic strain
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Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Top China diplomat, in line for foreign minister role, detained for probe
Liu was taken away in late July after arriving in Beijing after an overseas trip, the paper said, adding the reason for the detention was unclear. Liu heads the Communist Party's International Department, an agency for outreaches to foreign political parties and in parallel to China's foreign ministry. He has held the role since May 2022. Liu was widely expected to take over from Wang Yi as China's foreign minister. Wang was reappointed as foreign minister in July 2023 after Qin Gang was abruptly ousted less than a year into his role. Qin hasn't been seen in public since his dismissal. 'It's a big deal. Liu was seen as someone who could replace Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in the future,' said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Beijing's crackdown on corruption, especially targeting high-ranking officials, also serves to boost Xi's legitimacy and popularity among ordinary people by demonstrating his determination to fight corruption, he said. While Wu cautioned that the details surrounding the detention are unclear — and may never be revealed — he said when senior Chinese government officials are questioned the most likely reason is for corruption-related issues. The ministry of foreign affairs didn't respond immediately to a WeChat message seeking comment outside of regular business hours. The WSJ said Liu and the International Department couldn't be reached for comment. The International Department's official website showed Liu's last public activity was on July 29, when he met with local officials in Algeria. Liu has a long history at the foreign affairs ministry. After studying international relations at Oxford University from 1986-1987, he worked as a translator before rotating through the bureaucracy, eventually ending up at the information department. He was promoted to ambassador to the Philippines in 2009, a traditionally important position in the Chinese diplomatic corps. In 2015, he was moved from the foreign ministry to the international affairs wing of the party's top anti-corruption unit. Liu leveraged his foreign policy background to coordinate with other countries, including the US, in helping track down corrupt officials overseas as Xi accelerated his flagship graft campaign. Liu's graft-buster resume was boosted when he became Zhejiang province's corruption chief in 2017. There he served under Xia Baolong, who once worked alongside Xi and is now Beijing's point person on Hong Kong and Macau. In 2018, Liu returned to Beijing as a deputy director of the new Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission. Led by Yang Jiechi, the commission was part of Xi's efforts to consolidate the party's control over diplomacy. Liu was promoted to head of the International Department in June 2022. Traditionally, the agency was in charge of maintaining ties with parties from fellow Communist countries like North Korea and Vietnam, and other friendly nations such as Cambodia and Russia. Under his watch, the department has taken on a more public profile, with Liu hosting ambassadors and meeting with foreign ministers from Western countries, including Australia and the US.
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First Post
6 hours ago
- First Post
China detains Liu Jaianchao, seen as future foreign minister, on return from abroad
A top Chinese diplomat, Liu Jianchao, has been detained for questioning, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources. The 61-year-old, seen as a potential future foreign minister and a close ally of Xi Jinping, was taken into custody in late July after returning from an overseas trip. read more Liu Jianchao, a top Chinese diplomat and head of the Communist Party's foreign relations department, has been detained for questioning, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The 61-year-old was taken into custody in late July after returning to Beijing from an overseas trip, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Liu, seen as a possible future foreign minister and a close ally of President Xi Jinping, has led the Communist Party's body managing ties with foreign political parties since 2022. In that role, he has visited more than 20 countries and met officials from over 160 nations. His meetings, including with former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, had fueled speculation he was being groomed to replace the foreign minister. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The news comes just weeks before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, sending shockwaves through China's diplomatic circles. His detention is the highest-level investigation involving a diplomat since the removal of Qin Gang in 2023. Born in Jilin province, Liu studied English in Beijing and international relations at Oxford before joining the foreign ministry as a translator. He later served in Britain and as ambassador to Indonesia and the Philippines. As ministry spokesman, he was known for his humor as well as his firm defence of China's interests.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Time of India
Xi looks to tighten grip after scandals shake military elite
Outwardly, China's military has never been stronger. Its naval ships venture farther across the oceans. Its nuclear force grows by about 100 warheads every year. Its military flights around Taiwan are increasingly frequent and intimidating. Internally, though, China's military is experiencing its most serious leadership disarray in years. Three of the seven seats on the Central Military Commission - the Communist Party council that controls the armed forces - appear to be vacant after members were arrested or simply disappeared. That internal turbulence is testing President Xi Jinping 's effort, going back more than a decade, to build a military that is loyal, modern, combat-ready and fully under his control. Xi has set a 2027 target for modernizing the People's Liberation Army , or PLA, and also - according to some US officials - for gaining the ability to invade Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. The current wave of investigations and removals has reached some commanders hand-picked by Xi, suggesting recurrent problems in a system that he has tried for years to clean up. In the first years after Xi came to power in 2012, he launched an intense campaign to clean up corruption in the military. "When Xi Jinping sees his own men making mistakes, he is likely to be especially furious," Joseph Torigian, an associate professor at American University who has studied Chinese leaders' relations with the military, said of Xi. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Susan Boyle Is Now so Thin and Looks Beautiful! Undo "Control over the military is so existential. That's why any sense of stepping out of line has to be severely crushed." The most jarring absence in the military leadership is that of General He Weidong. The second most-senior career officer on the Central Military Commission, He has disappeared from official public events and mentions - an unexplained absence that suggests he, too, is in trouble and may be under investigation. Another top commander, Admiral Miao Hua, who oversaw political work in the military, was placed under investigation last year for unspecified "serious violations of discipline," a phrase that often refers to corruption or disloyalty. He was among around two dozen, if not more, senior PLA officers in the armaments industry who have been investigated since 2023, according to a tally by the Jamestown Foundation. While Chinese officials are vulnerable to probe for corruption or disloyalty even in the best of times, for him to lose them both reveals an uncommon degree of top-level upheaval. Xi's fears for the military come from questions of battlefield preparedness, and anxieties that commanders could drift away from loyalty. Xi may seek a fourth term as leader of the Communist Party in 2027, and he will need to replace purged commanders with a new cohort whose devotion to him is beyond question.
