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.
There is no such thing as inner peace. There is only nervousness or death. Any attempt to prove otherwise constitutes unacceptable behaviour.