Top China diplomat, in line for foreign minister role, detained for probe
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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