Tuesday saw the abrupt and highly unexpected replacement of China’s foreign minister Qin Gang with his predecessor. This came after Qin Gang had been out of the public sight for a considerable amount of time.
The abrupt action, which China’s rubber-stamp parliament’s top decision-making body approved, comes as uncertainty surrounds Qin’s whereabouts, who was last seen in the open on June 25.
After serving as China’s ambassador to Washington, Qin, a 57-year-old career diplomat and dependable advisor to Chinese President Xi Jinping, was only nominated foreign minister in December.
Qin’s resignation has not yet been explained, but Wang Yi, who took over for Qin, will now resume his duties, according to authorities.
China’s senior diplomat, Wang, who served as foreign minister from 2013 to 2022, is currently in charge of the Communist Party’s division of foreign policy.
Tuesday’s meeting of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which broke with customary written protocol, saw the appointment of the country’s new foreign minister.
The dismissal of Xi comes as China enters a busy and vital diplomatic season after emerging from pandemic isolation earlier this year and attempts to mend strained ties with its allies abroad.
The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Qin on June 18 while the American diplomat was in Beijing as part of the US and China’s efforts to reestablish dialogue.
In his final public outing, a beaming Qin was spotted strolling alongside the deputy foreign minister of Russia, Andrey Rudenko, who had flown to Beijing to meet with Chinese officials following a brief uprising by the Wagner mercenary group in Russia.
The ministry had not provided a comprehensive explanation for Qin’s departure from China’s agenda of foreign affairs, which led to widespread speculation in a nation renowned for its political obscurity.
China’s foreign minister was last seen in the public on this occasion.
When he failed to show up for a diplomatic event earlier this month, the ministry hastily stated “health reasons.” But the statement wasn’t included in the official briefing transcript that the ministry eventually placed online, and when a spokesman was questioned the following week, she said that she had “no information to provide.”
Wang Yi was already seen resuming his duties to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) annual meeting of foreign ministers in Indonesia earlier this month, and again at the BRICS bloc of major developing economies’ crucial meeting this week in South Africa. His absence also appeared to have caused disruptions.
Tuesday evening saw the removal of Qin’s profile from the Foreign Ministry website, and the space where his picture and welcoming greeting had once been had been changed to read “information being updated.”
The mystery surrounding Qin’s removal is increased by his alleged close ties to Xi, who last October achieved a record-breaking third term in office with a new leadership team full of devoted loyalists.
In spite of some surprise among sophisticated Chinese political analysts, Qin’s appointment as foreign minister last year over more qualified candidates was widely regarded as a demonstration of Xi’s confidence in the diplomat. Qin rose quickly to the position of foreign minister.
“Xi was the only one who was able to push Qin Gang up the ranks. Any issues with him will reflect poorly on Xi as well, suggesting that Xi did not pick the best candidate for the position, said Deng Yuwen, a former Communist Party newspaper editor who now resides in the US, to CNN earlier this month.
“If anything unusual happened to a senior official, people will wonder if their relationships with the top leader have soured or whether it is a sign of political instability,” said Deng.
Senior Chinese leaders have in the past vanished from view only to have their detention for investigations revealed months later by the Communist Party’s disciplinary watchdog. Such unexpected disappearances have become a regular occurrence in Xi’s anti-corruption campaign.
It’s unclear if Qin will face any disciplinary action or if any has already been taken.
Such informational gaps are frequent in the Chinese political system, which is intentionally opaque regarding the inner workings of a party that dominates all spheres of power and makes decisions in secret.
The Communist Party’s control over the political system and larger society has grown stronger under Xi as the leader has cracked down on dissent and consolidated power in his own hands.