CCP Names New Top Diplomat, Offers No Explanation on Predecessor’s Disappearance

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Oct 1, 2025 - 09:58 Updated: Oct 1, 2025 - 02:02
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CCP Names New Top Diplomat, Offers No Explanation on Predecessor’s Disappearance

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has installed a new leader of its diplomatic arm, while remaining silent on the whereabouts of his predecessor, who has been missing from public view for over a month.

On Sept. 30, the CCP’s International Department updated its official website to show that Liu Haixing, a veteran diplomat who spent much of his career in Europe, is now its head.

Liu Haixing, 62, joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1985 as a French translator. Over the years, he served at China’s mission to the United Nations and as minister-counsellor at the embassy in Paris, before rising to director of the ministry’s Department of European Affairs.

In 2015, he was promoted to assistant foreign minister, and since 2018, he has been deputy director of the CCP’s National Security Commission, a powerful body charged with tightening Party control over Chinese society.

While largely absent from headlines during his National Security Commission tenure, Liu Haixing occasionally published signed commentaries in party outlets. In a July article for the People’s Daily, a mouthpiece for the CCP, he declared that the communist regime was maintaining a “high-pressure” campaign against groups it deems threats to national security.

The Chinese regime routinely invokes accusations of separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism to suppress dissent and target politically undesirable groups.
Liu Haixing’s appointment comes amid growing questions about the disappearance of his predecessor, Liu Jianchao, who has not been seen since late July after returning from a trip to Algeria. His absence has fueled speculation that he may be under disciplinary investigation.

Liu Jianchao, 61, was named head of the International Department in June 2022. He travelled widely across Asia, Europe, and Africa to advance the CCP’s outreach, particularly as Beijing sought to repair its deteriorated image in the wake of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Liu Jianchao previously served as foreign ministry spokesman before being appointed ambassador to the Philippines in 2009, and to Indonesia in 2011. In 2015, he was promoted to a senior post overseeing Beijing’s pursuit of corruption suspects abroad through what is popularly called “Operation Fox Hunt.”

He then briefly oversaw a discipline inspection commission in the eastern province of Zhejiang before returning to foreign affairs in 2018 as deputy director of the CCP’s Foreign Affairs Commission.

No explanation has been given for Liu Jianchao’s disappearance. His political fate may be revealed at the CCP Central Committee’s annual conclave in Beijing from Oct. 20 to 23, a meeting expected to address high-level personnel shakeups—including disciplinary action against senior military commanders—while charting the communist regime’s 15th five-year plan.

Both Lius are part of the 205-member Central Committee.

The CCP’s International Department is primarily responsible for maintaining contacts, communications, and coordination with other communist parties around the world. Toward the end of the Cold War, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and other communist party-states, it began broadening its outreach to include non-communist parties and non-government organizations (NGOs).

Working closely with Chinese embassies abroad, the department now claims ties with more than 600 political parties in 160 countries worldwide. It presents itself as a central pillar of the CCP’s “Tell the China Story Well” campaign, a strategy aimed at polishing the Party’s international image under the guise of cross-cultural dialogue.
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