The US government believes Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu has been placed under investigation in the latest sign of turmoil among elite members of Beijing’s military and foreign policy establishment, XQ informs referring to the Financial Times.

Three US officials and two people briefed on the intelligence said Washington had concluded that Li, who has not been seen in public for more than two weeks, had been stripped of his responsibilities as defense minister.

The move comes two months after China’s president Xi Jinping removed the two top generals at the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, which oversees China’s rapidly expanding arsenal of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

China’s former foreign minister Qin Gang also disappeared from public view for one month before he was removed from his position in July.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu abruptly pulled out of a meeting with Vietnamese defense leaders last week, three officials with direct knowledge of the matter said, amid questions about his more than two-weeks-long absence from public view.

Li, 65, was due to attend an annual gathering on defense cooperation hosted by Vietnam on its border with China on September 7-8 but the meeting was postponed after Beijing told Hanoi days before the event that the minister had a "health condition," two Vietnamese officials said.