A different plague is sweeping over China’s highly secretive government: mysterious deaths and disappearances. Politico reports that hundreds of government and military officials have gone missing in a purge that once again conjures comparisons to Russia’s Joseph Stalin.
“Since his reign began in 2012, Xi Jinping’s endless purges have removed millions of officials — from top-ranked Communist Party ‘tigers’ down to lowly bureaucratic ‘flies,’ to use Xi’s evocative terminology,” Politico wrote.
But this wave of purges is bolder, with targets coming from not just the opposition, but also from within his inner circle — including high-ranking members hand-picked by Xi himself. Recent high-profile disappearances include former foreign minister Qin Gang, who has not been seen since July, and former defense minister Li Shangfu who was officially removed from his post in October but had disappeared earlier.
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While official reports attribute Qin’s removal to allegations of an affair and an illegitimate child during his time as ambassador to Washington, insiders suggest his involvement in a more serious scandal related to the defense minister and key figures in the “rocket force,” or the group responsible for China’s nuclear weapons program. His disappearance happened almost at the same time as that of the top members of the rocket force, including commander Li Yuchao, his deputy Liu Guangbin, and former deputy Zhang Zhenzhong.
In October, Li Keqiang, the country’s recently retired prime minister and the second-highest-ranking official in the Communist Party and Xi’s perceived rival, died of a heart attack in a swimming pool in Shanghai. He was 68 years old. After his sudden demise, Xi ordered public mourning to be restricted.
“In the minds of many in China, ‘heart attack in a swimming pool’ has the same connotation that ‘falling out of a window’ does for Russian apparatchiks who anger or offend Vladimir Putin,” Politico wrote.
Reports suggest that the purges are linked to allegations of passing nuclear secrets to Western intelligence agencies, intensifying the paranoia within Beijing’s political circles.
The opaque nature of China’s political system makes it impossible to independently verify these claims, and the government maintains its customary silence on internal matters. The escalating purges, fueled by paranoia and suspicion of Western influence, further strain China’s relations with the international community and raise doubts about the country’s openness for business with the West.
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