Rumours swirl after China’s defence minister, Li Shangfu, is sacked

Among the biggest cyber-threats to China, said the country’s spy chief, Chen Yixin, last month, is online rumour. As he put it: “A small incident can turn into a maelstrom of public opinion.” Yet the Communist Party’s penchant for secrecy keeps the rumour mill whirring. After weeks of speculation that he was in political trouble, the government announced on October 24th that the defence minister, Li Shangfu, had been dismissed. It gave no reason but, as many netizens correctly surmised, this was far from routine.General Li’s troubles coincide with rumoured scandal surrounding Qin Gang, who lost his job as foreign minister in July. According to the announcement, both men have also been stripped of their additional titles as state councillors: a senior position in China’s cabinet that is now held by only three people. General Li, who has not been seen in public since August 29th, has also been booted out of the state’s Central Military Commission, a notional body that replicates another one with real power controlled by the party. The final touches to this purge are expected at an annual meeting of the party’s Central Committee. This gathering of about 370 grandees is all but certain to strip the two men of their committee memberships and, in General Li’s case, of his post in the party’s military commission. No date has been set for the meeting, but it is probably imminent.