The Chinese foreign minister has not appeared in public for almost a month.
Not found. Qin Gang, Chinese foreign minister and a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, has not appeared in public since June 25. Many unofficially rumors circulate whether this absence is officially due to health problems.
Who is Qin Gang?
Qin Gang was appointed China’s vice president of foreign affairs in 2018 at the age of 52 and has enjoyed a meteoric rise ever since. The diplomat was promoted to Chinese ambassador to the United States in July 2021, at a time when tensions between the world’s two leading economic powerhouses are running high.
A final experience, as Qin Gang was recalled to Beijing at the end of December 2022 to take charge of the foreign ministry. In more than six months, he accomplished his mission and made a public appearance alongside Xi Jinping on June 19 during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Qin Gang was last seen with Vietnamese, Sri Lankan and Russian officials six days later.
Replaced by its predecessor
Since June 25, his predecessor Wang Yi has been responsible for current events and has met, for example, with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for the climate. Wang Yi, 69, is director of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Bureau of Foreign Affairs but has no “responsibilities within the state apparatus,” notes Le Monde.
Finally, it was Wang Yi’s attendance at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers’ meeting that compelled China to mention Qin Gang’s absence. The latter had “difficulty attending the series of foreign ministers’ (ASEAN) meetings due to physical reasons,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on July 11, without giving details. More details on the physical condition of the minister and his possible return. Public broadcaster RFI reports that the spokesman for Chinese diplomacy claimed on July 14 that they had no information on the matter.
Rumors of adultery or shame
Officially, Qin Gang disappeared from traffic due to his health condition. A plausible version, because the disease is taboo for the Chinese power, which does not want to convey a picture of the weakness of its staff. But while the Hong Kong media initially spoke of an infection with Covid-19, a suspicion of adultery remains the most persistent rumor.
Non-Chinese social networks therefore reflect an extramarital relationship between Qin Gang and a Phoenix TV host, with whom the minister allegedly had an illegitimate child. The fact that the journalist has also disappeared makes the fear the most pessimistic scenario. However, in his weekly letter published July 18, James Palmer, director of Foreign Policy magazine, states that this alleged adultery was “the symptom of Qin’s fall, not its cause,” suggesting rather a shame.
An uncertain diplomatic horizon
“Being a protégé of Xi Jinping, his disgrace, if any, is the result of a decision made at the highest peak in the country,” Claude Leblanc analyzes in the Opinion columns. “The level of his wrongdoing must be just as high. In this case, the sanction is exemplary.” Still, this reluctance could affect China’s diplomatic life, which has been very active lately.
While Xi Jinping has just received visits from New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkings, Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, visits to European ministers have been put on hold since Qin’s disappearance.
The planned July 10 visit by Josep Borrel, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, to Beijing has therefore been postponed to an as yet unknown date. “Even if it is formal, a state cannot sign an agreement with the CCP representative,” an ambassador admitted to Le Monde, recalling that veteran Wang Yi is not officially foreign minister. Enough to promise an impending announcement from Beijing that could lift the veil on the mystery of Qin Gang’s disappearance.