Despite a diplomatic schedule jam-packed with high-profile engagements in Beijing, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang has remained hidden from the public eye for more than three weeks.
Author: Pallavi Bhagat, 23 July 2023
Since President Xi Jinping’s top advisor and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has been missing from the public eye for almost a month, there has been a lot of conjecture regarding his location. This has brought attention to China’s secrecy. On June 25, he met with visiting officials from Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Russia. That was his final public appearance. Then he disappeared. Qin’s disappearance from public view has given rise to many rumours and exposed Beijing’s lack of openness.
Qin’s extended absence has sparked a flurry of rumours about his whereabouts and brought attention to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which controls the second-largest economy in the world, for its lack of transparency.
Qin Gang was replaced as chief of Beijing’s mission to the ASEAN meeting in Indonesia. At the time, Qin would not travel “for health reasons,” according to a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry Wang Wenbin, who made no more explanations.
Josep Borrell, the head of the EU’s foreign policy, and the foreign minister’s talks were also postponed after China told the EU that the previously scheduled dates were no longer feasible. Beijing made no attempt to explain this.
He is still missing after nearly a month, and China has yet to comment. The platform’s “no results” notice appeared when someone searched for “where is Qin Gang” there, according to The Guardian.
According to platform statistics, the number of searches for “Qin Gang” on the Baidu search engine has grown 28-fold in the last week to more than 380,000 each day, according to Reuters.
AFFAIR WITH A MEDIA PERSON?
New York Times reported that Qin Gang’s disappearance might be due to rumours that he was having an affair with writer Fu Xiaotian.
The country’s ruling Communist Party formally forbids cadres from engaging in extramarital relationships, and the disciplinary watchdog frequently accuses senior officials of wrongdoing based on extramarital relationships. However, despite the controversy surrounding an alleged account of a decade-long romance, former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli continued to participate in the leadership convention last year.
‘His disappearance has highlighted China’s high-level decision-making and diplomatic apparatus’s vulnerability.’
In China’s political landscape, Qin has been dubbed a rising star. After fewer than two years as ambassador to the United States, the former adviser to President Xi Jinping was named foreign minister in December.
Since assuming the position of foreign minister, he has been instrumental in mending strained ties between the United States and China. In June, during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first visit to China in five years, he met with Blinken in Beijing.
China has a long history of abrupt and frequently explicable absences by government officials, most notably during the height of Beijing’s anti-corruption drive.
