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The disappearance of Chinese language overseas minister Qin Gang and the latest destiny of senior Chinese language officers within the nation’s strategic missile command suggests all is just not nicely in China. The Chinese language authorities has not denied rumors of an affair between Qin and a high-powered and well-connected Phoenix Tv reporter, Fu Xiaotian, who’s suspected of being a double agent. Phoenix Tv is a Chinese language state-owned broadcaster headquartered in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
At a press convention of the Chinese language overseas ministry in Beijing on July 17, a reporter cited a story within the Instances that Qin was below investigation for his affair with Fu. The ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning replied she didn’t perceive the state of affairs.
The 40-year-old Fu is alleged to have hyperlinks to British intelligence, a supply informed Asia Sentinel. On Might 10, 2019, Chinese language cost d’affaires Chen Wen attended the opening ceremony of a backyard named after Fu at Churchill School, Cambridge College, the place she beforehand studied, the Chinese language overseas ministry introduced. It’s uncommon for an august British college like Cambridge to call a backyard after an individual except that individual was a serious worldwide determine.
“China pulled the strings at Churchill School,” a professor informed Asia Sentinel.
On June 12, 2017, Ettore Sequi, the Italian ambassador to China, awarded Fu the Order of the Star of Italy in Beijing, introduced Churchill School. “This prestigious award was given for her work with senior political figures and her promotion of robust hyperlinks between Italy and China.”
“Xiaotian has constructed a profitable media profession in China encouraging worldwide cooperation and engagement as host of the Phoenix Tv program Discuss with World Leaders – that includes interviews with world political leaders, which has an viewers of over 200 million individuals,” Churchill School added.
In the course of the Chinese language overseas ministry press convention on July 17, when a reporter requested about Qin’s standing as Chinese language overseas minister, Mao referred the reporter to the ministry’s web site and stated she had no additional info.
Presently, the web site of China’s overseas ministry lists Qin as its overseas minister, however not amongst its record of primary officers. Different Chinese language ministries just like the finance ministry and commerce ministry record their minister amongst their primary officers. For Qin to not be listed among the many high officers of the Chinese language overseas ministry is “very, very irregular,” stated the professor, who declined to be named.
On July 11, the Chinese language overseas ministry introduced Qin wouldn’t attend an Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) assembly in Indonesia for well being causes. Nevertheless, his extended absence has stirred hypothesis that the explanation for his absence is greater than well being points. Qin’s newest actions introduced on the Chinese language overseas ministry web site occurred on June 25, making him absent for 22 days.
On July 15, Victor Shih, an affiliate professor of China research at UCSD, tweeted, “Qin Gang’s absence is curious. (The ministry of overseas affairs) can simply have him concern a letter of congratulations or one thing to dispel to the rumors however I haven’t seen something because the “well being concern” remark.”
Throughout a Chinese language overseas ministry press convention in Beijing on July 14, a reporter requested the ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin whether or not Qin’s absence was totally on account of well being causes and when he would return. Wang paused for 16 seconds after which replied that he had earlier answered the same query.
Missile commanders’ mishaps
Aside from the absence of the Chinese language overseas minister, lieutenant normal Li Yuchao, the commander of China’s rocket power was conspicuous by his absence at a promotion ceremony of the Folks’s Liberation Military (PLA) in late June. China’s rocket power oversees the nation’s tactical and strategic missiles together with nuclear missiles. Li’s absence has sparked hypothesis that he is perhaps below investigation by the Chinese language authorities.
A former Chinese language lieutenant colonel, Yao Cheng, tweeted on June 29 that “the present commander of the Rocket Drive, Li Yuchao, was taken away from his workplace on the morning of yesterday!”
Yao made one other tweet on June 29 saying, “Stories counsel that Li Yuchao’s son is learning in the US, the place he’s feared to have offered China’s army secrets and techniques.”
Many senior officers within the rocket power are implicated for corruption or leaking army secrets and techniques, stated an article in Ming Pao, a Hong Kong Chinese language-language newspaper, on July 13. On July 5, the Supreme Folks’s Procuratorate, which is China’s equal of the legal professional normal’s workplace in some international locations, introduced that Zhang Fusheng, a former deputy chief of the Nationwide Hearth and Rescue Administration, was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes. Zhang was beforehand an officer within the rocket power.
On July 7, an official inner report from the CCP was leaked on-line, stating that Wu Guohua, a former deputy commander of China’s rocket power, handed away in Beijing on July 6 on account of cerebral hemorrhage, in accordance with a media report. On social media and the Web, there may be hypothesis that Wu’s demise was a suicide linked to a attainable investigation of Li.
A bit over a decade in the past, China solely possessed round 50 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), of which solely 30 ICMBs may reliably attain the US mainland, stated a report of the Middlebury Institute of Worldwide Research at Monterey on July 3. After Chinese language President Xi elevated China’s missile forces right into a full department of the Folks’s Liberation Military in 2015, the variety of missile launchers deployed by China has elevated quickly, stated the report. The rocket power is on observe to deploy greater than 1,000 ballistic missile launchers by 2028, the report added.
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