The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has officially announced the dismissal of Sun Weidong from his position as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sun Weidong has not reached retirement age and his current whereabouts are unknown.
According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the CCP on April 14th, Zhao Wenfang was appointed as the Deputy Director of the National Railway Administration, replacing Sun Weidong from his position as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; and An Lusheng was also removed from his position as Deputy Director of the National Railway Administration.
An Lusheng, born in November 1965, has already surpassed the retirement age of 60 for deputy ministerial level officials, while Sun Weidong, born in September 1966, will only reach retirement age in September this year.
Sun Weidong, a native of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, has held various positions throughout his career, including as a teacher and deputy director at the Foreign Affairs College, second secretary at the Asian Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, second and first secretary at the Embassy of Malaysia, first secretary, deputy director, and director at the Asian Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, counsellor at the Embassy of India, counselor at the Policy Research Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and deputy director of the Asian Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2013, Sun Weidong was appointed as the Ambassador to Pakistan, and returned to China four years later to serve as the Director of the Policy Planning Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In July 2019, he was appointed as the Ambassador to India, and later in November 2022, he became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, also concurrently serving as the Secretary of the CCP Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On March 28th of this year, Sun Weidong co-chaired the 11th meeting of the China-Philippines South China Sea Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) with the Deputy Foreign Minister and Senior ASEAN Affairs Official Eirene Aguirre-Lin in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. Earlier that day, he also co-chaired the 24th China-Philippines Foreign Affairs Consultation with Aguirre-Lin in Quanzhou.
Since the former Foreign Minister Qin Gang’s incident in the middle of 2023, there have been frequent personnel changes in the CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with speculations of a secret cleansing within the diplomatic system as well. While Sun Weidong has been relieved of his duties, the official announcement did not disclose his next steps. As for the reasons behind his dismissal, they currently remain unknown.