China announces removal of Defense Minister Li Shangfu from the post - missing for 2 months

China News: China has announced the removal of Defense Minister Li Shangfu. He has been missing without any information for almost 2 months. There are allegations of corruption against him. An investigation is underway against Shangfu in cases related to the purchase of military weapons. Shangfu was last seen on August 29, speaking at a security forum with African countries in Beijing. Earlier that month he also visited Russia and Belarus. Like Shangfu, China's Foreign Minister Qian Gang had also gone missing for a long time in July. He was later removed from the post of minister.

In fact, in July, the arms procurement unit in China's Defense Ministry had issued a notice. In this, it was said that irregularities should be removed from the bidding process for arms purchase. The unit had publicly sought reports that contained evidence of mistakes.

This report was sought around October 2017. At that time, Li Shangfu was the head of the arms purchasing department. He was on this post till October 2022. According to Reuters, the names of 8 more officers of this unit are also included in the investigation.