The Chinese government quietly arrested and took away Liu Jianchao, a senior Chinese diplomat and strong contender to be the next foreign minister, for “questioning” in early August, reports indicated this week.
The curiously abrupt action against Liu that some reports alleged, if confirmed, would be the highest-level purge in China’s diplomatic corps in years.
Liu, 61, is a veteran foreign service officer who has been head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee since 2022. Before that, was deputy director of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention, serving as a top enforcer in “Operation Fox Hunt,” one of dictator Xi Jinping’s many politicized anti-corruption purges.
Until recently, the Oxford-educated Liu was the consensus choice among China-watchers to take over from
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