China on Tuesday removed its newly appointed foreign minister Qin Gang, ending speculation about his future after the month-long, unexplained vanishing act.
Top diplomat Wang Yi replaced Mr. Qin to become China’s foreign minister, according to state media Xinhua.
Mr. Wang had served as the foreign minister for nearly a decade before being appointed to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Foreign Affairs Commission, a post that outranked the ministerial position in the regime’s opaque political system.
Mr. Qin’s sudden dismissal came after his meteoric rise. Mr. Qin, who was widely seen as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s protégé, took over the foreign minister’s job last December, becoming one of the youngest officials to hold that position. During the major political reshuffle in March, Mr. Qin was named a state councilor.
The announcement provides no explanation of Mr. Qin’s departure.
As of Tuesday, Mr. Qin has disappeared from the public eye for a month. The last time Mr. Qin was seen in state media was on June 25 when he welcomed the visiting diplomats from Russia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Since then, he has missed several major meetings, including the gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia earlier this month.
At first, Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, attributed Mr. Qin’s absence to “health reasons,” without specifying.
The official silence only fueled speculations. Hong Kong and Taiwan media reports suggested the reason may be an extramarital affair with television anchor Fu Xiaotian. Analysts, meanwhile, pointed to Mr. Wang’s dissatisfaction with Mr. Qin’s work.
Earlier Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was once again asked about Mr. Qin during the daily briefing.
“I have no information to offer,” she told reporters. “China’s diplomatic activities are underway as usual.”
The 57-year-old Mr. Qin gained a reputation for his sharp rhetoric in retorts to Western criticism of the regime while serving as a spokesman for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry from 2005 to 2010, as well as from 2011 to 2014.
In 2009, in response to a question about why YouTube was being blocked in China, Mr. Qin told reporters that the internet in China was “fully opened.” “As for what you can and cannot watch, watch what you can watch, and don’t watch what you cannot watch,” he said.
Before he was named the foreign minister, Mr. Qin served as Chinese ambassador to the United States. Previously, Mr. Qin served as one of China’s nine vice foreign ministers from 2018 to 2021. Since joining the foreign ministry in 1988, Mr. Qin has steadily risen from junior aide to the vice minister responsible for overseeing European affairs and protocol.
Mr. Qin worked directly with Mr. Xi while heading the Foreign Ministry’s Protocol Department. Mr. Qin has also accumulated experience accompanying Mr. Xi on his overseas trips since 2014.
From The Epoch Times
