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Chinese authorities have detained senior diplomat Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a body parallel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that manages ties with political forces in other countries, such as Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
Liu Jianchao’s arrest, at age 61, was reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing anonymous sources. According to the U.S. newspaper, the senior official was taken into custody in late July 2025 upon his return to Beijing from an overseas trip. The possible reason for his detention remains unknown, and Chinese authorities have not officially confirmed it.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to requests for confirmation from international news agencies and outlets.
According to the CPC International Department’s website, Liu’s last public appearance was on July 29, when he met with local officials in Algeria.
Meeting with Fidel Moreno
In mid-January 2025, Liu Jianchao met in Beijing with a delegation of FSLN political secretaries and mayors. The group was led by Fidel Moreno Briones, secretary general of Managua’s city hall, the FSLN’s secretary of organization, and a political operator for Nicaragua’s presidential couple in the municipalities.
According to the regime’s propaganda outlets, the senior Chinese diplomat praised the “exceptional leadership of Commander Daniel Ortega and Compañera Rosario Murillo.”
He also acknowledged “the achievements of the FSLN as a revolutionary party at the forefront of Nicaragua’s social, political, and economic transformations,” according to a report published by El 19 Digital.
In her January 13 address, the “co-president” Rosario Murillo stated, “We are pleased with the results of the meetings our delegation, as the FSLN, has been holding with the Communist Party of China at various levels.”
Liu Jianchao’s career
Before assuming his current post in 2022, Liu Jianchao served as spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the early 2000s and later as ambassador to the Philippines and Indonesia. He subsequently held senior positions in key anti-corruption agencies, returning to Beijing in 2018 to join the CPC Central Foreign Affairs Commission.
His public profile and agenda — which included meetings with former U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — had placed him among the contenders to be named China’s foreign minister.
In fact, his arrest would be the highest-level detention of a Chinese diplomatic corps member since mid-2023, when then–Foreign Minister Qin Gang was removed from his post just seven months after his appointment, following a month-long public absence.
That same year, Defense Minister Li Shangfu was also dismissed without explanation and later expelled from the CPC after being accused of corruption. At the end of 2024, authorities officially confirmed the arrest and prosecution of Tang Renjian, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs from 2020 to 2024, for allegedly accepting bribes.
Since taking power in 2012, CPC General Secretary and President Xi Jinping has launched an anti-corruption campaign in which numerous senior Chinese officials — from both government institutions and state-owned enterprises — have been convicted of taking multimillion-dollar bribes.
