FirstFT: China ousts defence minister two months after disappearance

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Good morning. China has officially removed Li Shangfu as defence minister and cabinet member, almost two months after he disappeared amid a sweeping purge of senior military leaders.

The standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber stamp parliament, also stripped former foreign minister Qin Gang of his rank as state councillor, or cabinet member, three months after his dismissal following a similar absence from public view.

The downfall of two high-profile cabinet members has underscored the increasing opacity of Chinese politics under President Xi Jinping. Here’s more on the mysterious shake-up and how it could affect China’s military dialogue with the US.

• Cross-Strait relations: Taiwan’s leading presidential candidate has blasted China over a probe of Apple supplier Foxconn, accusing Beijing of unfairly targeting the Taiwanese company ahead of an election next year.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• State visit: US president Joe Biden hosts Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese at the White House. The two leaders are expected to announce plans to co-operate on critical minerals and Pacific Islands infrastructure. (Reuters)

• Hong Kong: The Chinese territory’s top official John Lee will deliver the annual policy address.

• Results: Meta, IBM, Boeing, Deutsche Bank, Moody’s, Porsche, Kering and Mattel are among those reporting.

Five more top stories

1. UN chief António Guterres condemned “clear violations of international law” in Gaza in his toughest remarks so far about the conduct of the war between Israel and Hamas. Guterres also said that Hamas’ deadly assault on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum”, though he added that their grievances could not justify the “appalling attacks”. His remarks triggered a furious response from Israeli officials.

• ‘I went through hell’: 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshit was one of 200 people captured and taken to Gaza by Hamas militants in the October 7 attack. Hours after her release, she told her story to a bank of reporters.

• ‘No plan’: Israel has yet to agree a detailed plan for postwar Gaza, raising fears that a land invasion against Hamas could begin without adequate preparation for its aftermath.

• ‘Davos in the Desert’: Saudi Arabia’s flagship investment conference is steering clear of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as Riyadh hopes to send a business-as-usual message that it remains open for investment.

2. Donald Trump has torpedoed Tom Emmer’s bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives, just hours after fellow Republicans selected the Minnesotan as their newest candidate to lead Congress’s lower chamber. The former US president said voting for Emmer would be a “tragic mistake”, in an intervention that leaves the Republican party with no clear path forward to select a new congressional leader.

• Trump’s civil fraud trial: Michael Cohen, the one-time fixer and personal lawyer of Donald Trump, testified that he had been instructed by the former US president to “reverse engineer” his financial statements.

• Georgia election interference case: Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis has struck a plea deal with Georgia prosecutors in the sprawling conspiracy case.

3. More than three dozen US states have sued Meta, alleging the social media platform deliberately deployed manipulative and addictive features in order to hook young users in their hunt for profit, while misleading the public about their actual harms. The lawsuit comes amid growing concern over a teen mental health crisis that some researchers have attributed to social media usage.

4. SenseTime, once the darling of China’s artificial intelligence sector, appears stymied by the US-China “chip war” in its effort to diversify away from its surveillance business. The Hong Kong-based company’s move into data centres packed with cutting-edge AI chips now seems doomed by the latest round of US export controls preventing Nvidia and its rivals from selling the powerful chips to Chinese customers.

5. The chief executive of a leading Hong Kong property group has declared the end of a “golden era” for the territory’s residential developers as the government takes an increasingly active hand in boosting housing supply. “Hong Kong real estate is no longer a totally free market,” said Chinachem’s Donald Choi. Read the full interview.

News in-depth

Last year, 361 academics left Hong Kong’s eight public universities, a turnover rate of 7.4 per cent and the highest mark in more than two decades, according to official data. The territory has long been an intellectual hub for western academics and a haven for liberal Chinese scholars. But researchers said shrinking academic freedoms and fears of falling foul of a sweeping security law were encouraging some to leave.

We’re also reading . . . 

• ‘Axis of evil’: The phrase gives too much credit to a grouping as loose and putative as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, writes Janan Ganesh.

• Oil ‘arms race’: Chevron’s $53bn deal for US operator Hess has sparked speculation that BP and Shell may feel forced to respond.

• War in Ukraine: With the conflict dragging on, Kyiv is racing to build its own arms industry to meet what Ukraine’s prime minister said was a “huge deficit of ammunition”.

Chart of the day

China’s overall trade remains robust despite US trade restrictions introduced under Donald Trump and continued under Joe Biden. Martin Wolf argues that the biggest questions about China’s economic future are political, as it wrestles with the relationship between communism and capitalism.

Take a break from the news

Did you know Seoul has the most cafés per capita in the world? The singer-songwriter Eric Nam highlights the South Korean capital’s vibrant café culture and much more in this insider’s guide to Seoul.

Additional contributions from Grace Ramos and Gordon Smith