CHINA DISMISSES VICE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUN WEIDONG
Senior Chinese diplomat Sun Weidong has been dismissed from his post as vice minister of foreign affairs, in the latest case of a high-ranking official being removed from office by Beijing.
The Ministry of Human Resources announced the news in a brief post on its website on Tuesday, citing a decision of the State Council, the highest body of state power in China.
The post did not say why or when Sun had been dismissed, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website shows his last public engagements were meetings with the ambassadors of Brunei and Malaysia to China on March 13.
Two days earlier, Sun had met Pakistan’s ambassador to China to discuss bilateral cooperation, according to a post on diplomat Khalil Hashmi’s X account.
Dismissals of this kind in the Chinese government usually indicate high-level disciplinary action and are often followed by news of an investigation.
Sun’s dismissal notice included the removal of another official, An Lusheng, from his post as deputy director of the National Railway Administration.