Posted on 09/21/2023 12:35:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The sacking of a top diplomat and the mysterious disappearance of a defence minister have raised fresh questions around President Xi Jinping's increasingly opaque decision-making, experts say.
US officials believe defence minister Li Shangfu is under investigation and has been relieved of his duties just six months after his appointment, the Financial Times reported last week.
In July, foreign minister Qin Gang - long seen as a close ally of Xi's - was removed from office without explanation. Later that month China announced that former navy commander Wang Houbin would take over as the new head of the Chinese military's Rocket Force, as media reports emerged of a corruption probe. Wang's predecessor Li Yuchao had not been seen in weeks, and state media offered no explanation for his removal.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
In the Soviet Union they used to make balcony photos of the leaders change into ones with one or two people missing. And someone out of favor, whether a professor or a politician, would have all references to them disappear. This included the humorous work of pre-internet encyclopedias, history books and reference books in libraries having the person’s name literally cut out by razor blades by touring Soviet agents who had to visit each library themselves to cut the names out.
Today it’s a delete or other method including google and Yahoo search blocks (not just Hillary’s “You mean wipe it with a cloth?”). Or a BleachBit job.
Sorry to say it, but it looks like they are getting ready for battle. My guess is that if they lose their asset in the White House, they will kick something off in the “interregnum” after the election and before inauguration.
“In July, foreign minister Qin Gang - long seen as a close ally of Xi’s - was removed from office without explanation.”
Qin Gang had a mistress in America, Fu Xiaotian, who gave birth to an American Citizen. Hahaha. He was forced out.
These are signs of regime instability, not strength. Based on experience with other authoritarian regimes, some insecure officials will quit or seek internal allies. A few will turn to exile or will seek accommodation from foreign intelligence services.
Xi is doing the Mao thing. All power resides in Xi. Very bad things are coming for China.
You are correct. There are no easy or clear solutions to any of China’s fundamental problems: generational and demographic imbalances; the thuggery, corruption, and dysfunction of communist party rule; a massive load of bad debts and failing commercial enterprises; rising competition for and resistance to Chinese exports; and increasing unemployment, especially for the young.
The Commissar has vanished.
L
Body parts on sale on ebay
Sounds like the US, too, unfortunately.
Who could have imagined improbable self-taught lawyer Abraham Lincoln becoming President and winning the Civil War? Or Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan becoming President, reviving the US economy, and defeating the Soviet Union without the Cold War going hot? Or that tempestuous billionaire developer Donald Trump would defeat the vile Hillary Clinton, revive the US economy, and begin to confront China?
In contrast, China tends to have authoritarian central rule eventually go bad and put the country into a period of warring states. That unhappy history haunts China's leaders.
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