Liu Jianchao is the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, which builds ties with foreign political parties. He was widely tipped as the next foreign minister. A fluent English-speaker who studied at Oxford University, he avoided the aggressive "wolf-warrior" style of diplomacy once voguish among Chinese diplomats. Days before his disappearance he said: "It is unimaginable that China and the United States would engage in armed conflict."
Mr Liu's last public activity was on July 30th 2025, when he visited a senior politician in Algiers. On August 10th the Wall Street Journal reported that he had been detained for questioning; Reuters confirmed the report. The reason was unknown. One of his deputies, Sun Haiyan, was also questioned but later reappeared.
If Mr Liu fails to re-emerge, it would mark another purge at the top of China's foreign-policy establishment, following the disappearance of former foreign minister Qin Gang in 2023.
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.