The National People’s Assembly (ANP, equivalent to a Legislature) of China approved today the appointment as the new Defense Minister of General li shang fuwho was sanctioned in 2018 by the United States accused of buying weapons from the Russian state company Rosoboronexport.
Likewise, the ANP appointed wang xiaohong Minister of Public Security and Chen Yixin Minister of State Security, who will be in charge of the Interior and Intelligence apparatus of the Asian country.
In 2018, then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, announced sanctions against the Chinese company Equipment Development Department (EDD) and its then director, li shang fufor having purchased weapons from the Russian state company Rosoboronexport.
According to the State Department, the Chinese company was sanctioned for acquiring, in 2017, Su-35 combat aircraft and, in 2018, equipment related to the S-400 surface-to-air missile system.
The then foreign spokesman, Geng Shuang, In 2018, he expressed “great outrage” over those sanctions and asked Washington to withdraw them. Geng justified the purchase and asserted that Russia is “a strategic cooperation partner” of Beijing.
The ANP concluded today the remodeling of the Chinese Executive after the appointment on Saturday of the new prime minister, li qiangat the proposal of the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Li, previously responsible for the country’s largest business center, Shanghai, will have the difficult mission of laying the foundations for the recovery of the world’s second largest economy.
Likewise, the plenary approved today to maintain yi gang as governor of the central bank, liu kun as Finance Minister and Wang Wentao as Commerce Minister.
zheng shanjieclose to Xi, was appointed director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s highest economic planning body.
The PNA also appointed Ding Xuexiang, He Lifeng, Zhang Guoqing and Liu Guozhong as vice premiers.
The new Executive must also advance guidelines such as achieving “scientific and technological self-sufficiency”, a response to Washington’s veto on the manufacture of US chips for Chinese companies.
Xi, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), consolidated his power on Friday after the PNA appointed him to a third five-year presidential term unprecedented among his predecessors.
He also ratified his position as president of the Central Military Commission (CMC), a position that is equivalent to that of head of the Armed Forces.
In this way, the president’s control over the three arms of power is reinforced: the State, the PCCh and the Army.
Discussion about this post