BEIJING (Reuters) - China's agriculture minister, put under investigation by Beijing's graft watchdog over the weekend for potential corruption, has been removed from the leadership roster on his ministry's website as of Monday.

Tang Renjian, 61, was placed under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and law" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervisory Commission, according to an official statement on Saturday. The phrase is CCDI's typical euphemism for corruption.

The move to investigate Tang, also the head of China's food security campaign, was unusually swift.

Tang last appeared in public on Wednesday at a conference on rural talent in northwestern Shaanxi province. Last year, before the formal removal of Li Shangfu and Qin Gang, China's former defence and foreign ministers, the two men had been missing for months.

The State Council, or cabinet, still had Tang listed as the agriculture minister on its website as of Monday morning, but his name was no longer on the leadership roster of the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs' website.

Tang's name also yielded no search results on his ministry's website.

The agriculture ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

In a statement on Saturday, the top Communist Party leadership within the agriculture ministry "unanimously" declared their support for the decision to investigate Tang."

"We must severely punish corruption with a zero-tolerance attitude," the statement said.

Tang was governor of the northwestern province of Gansu from 2017 to 2020 before being named minister of agriculture and rural affairs in December 2020.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Jamie Freed)