Over the summer, Beijing limited the Pentagon chief lloyd austin to a single handshake with the sanctioned Chinese Defense Minister Li Shang Fu at a high-level military forum. Now, Li’s disappearance from public view could help restart high-level military talks between the superpowers.
The Chinese defense chief is reportedly under investigation after not being seen in public since August 29 and missing engagements, fueling speculation he will be replaced. This would remove a major obstacle to military talks with the United States, after Beijing made their resumption conditional on the removal of Li’s sanctions.