Communist regimes have acquired a reputation for their black-box operations, where they carefully hide certain internal affairs from the outside world, including from people living under the regime. Several such mysterious operations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have recently attracted attention.
The hottest recent topic is the whereabouts of Qin Gang, former Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs. Qin disappeared about a month ago. Beijing gave an unconvincing explanation that Qin had been away for “health reasons.” Eventually, Beijing announced that Qin has been removed from his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs and that Wang Yi has been appointed as a replacement. Wang was the head of the CCP’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission, which overseas the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The CCP still has not given any details about what happened to Qin Gang.
Wu Guohua (吴国华), Deputy Commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force, died on July 4, but the government never announced his death. A short notice about Wu’s death was posted on the Internet on July 27, but it was quickly removed and can no longer be seen. Rumor has it that Wu committed suicide. There were also rumors that several top officials of the Rocket Force, including its Commander Li Yuchao (李玉超) and a few others, were under investigation for corruption and leaking secrets.
Wang Shaojun (王少军), former Director of the CCP’s Central Security Bureau, was officially announced dead on July 24, three months after his death. No details were given about how he died. The Central Security Bureau is responsible for providing security protection for top CCP officials (CCP Politburo member-level or above).
Source: Radio France International, July 27, 2023
https://www.rfi.fr/cn/中国/20230727-秘不发丧-从火箭军副司令吴国华神秘死亡说起