Ill-health or love affair? Why has Qin Gang been removed as Chinese foreign minister?

Editor’s Note: This piece, originally published on 19 July, has been updated after Qin Gang’ was removed as Chinese foreign minister After nearly a month of not being seen in public and much speculation about his status, Qin Gang has been removed as China’s foreign minister. Qin, last seen in public on 25 June in Beijing, has been replaced by his predecessor Wang Yi. Qin, 57, only took up the job in December after a brief stint as envoy to the United States. The top decision-making body of China’s parliament voted on the move on Tuesday, as per CNN. But why was Qin replaced as foreign minister? Let’s take a closer look: Ill health? Qin missed a Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting earlier in July due to ‘health reasons’ . Wang, China’s top diplomat, had replaced Qin at the meet. “State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang cannot attend this ASEAN ministerial meeting because of health reasons,” spokesman Wang Wenbin had stated without elaborating. Bloomberg noted that this was a rare comment from Beijing regarding the health of an official. China does not often give details about the health of its leaders, as per Economic Times. The piece noted that President Xi Jinping only disclosed his vaccination status in July 2022 – the last of G20 leaders. “It’s not implausible he’s been sidelined for health reasons,” Richard McGregor, senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney told Bloomberg. “The longer he’s absent the more likely there’s some other much more serious reason for him not being able to appear in public.” But a far more sensational reason is also being cited for Qin’s continued absence. Love affair? The Times UK reported that Qin’s disappearance came amid rumours of an affair with Fu Xiaotian – a Cambridge-educated reporter and TV personality. According to The Week, Qin and Fu are even rumoured to have had a child out of wedlock – a huge no-no for China’s Communist Party. Senior officials charged with corruption are often also cited for having affairs. Qin’s profile on the Chinese foreign ministry website says that he is married and has a son. Fu, who works for state-owned and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, interviewed Qin in March 2022 on a TV show, as per CNA.  Fu is also a US citizen, as per The Print.

The Times UK cited local media reports as saying that Fu and her infant son have not been seen publicly in months.

According to Time Magazine, China’s Communist Party officially bans cadres from having such relationships. Senior officials charged with corruption are often also cited for having affairs. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, previously asked about Qin’s absence, said she had “no information to provide”, as per The Times of India. Asked about the alleged affair by a reporter, Mao said, “I have no understanding of the matter,” as per The Week. Interestingly, Mao’s remarks on Qin were not included in official records of the briefing later uploaded on the foreign ministry website, Radio Free Asia reported. What do experts say?

Some say it doesn’t really matter why he’s missing.

“It doesn’t really matter for other countries why he’s gone. It’s the fact he has gone that is holding up diplomacy with China,”  Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a US think-tank, told Financial Times.

“The length of time that Qin Gang has been outside of the public eye is extremely uncommon.”

Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund, told the outlet Qin’s absence would have no impact on Beijing’s relationship with the United

States.

Glaster noted that Blinken had previously invited Qin to Washington

“Obviously that is on ice until there is greater clarity about whether or when Qin is returning to his position. So that’s an obvious example of an impact on US-China relations,” said Glaser. “Wang Yi can only do the job of two people for so long.”

Others say the lack of transparency hurts China’s credibility.

Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based China politics commentator, told BBC, “People are interested in the story because they are curious about any secrets in the black box.”

“His disappearance has highlighted the fragility of China’s diplomacy system and high-level decision-making system.” “Given China’s status and influence in the world, it’s indeed very strange that its foreign minister has not appeared in public for more than 20 days,” said Deng Yuwen, a former editor of a Communist Party newspaper who now lives in the US, told CNN. Bloomberg quoted Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the state-run Global Times as writing on Weibo  “There’s something everyone is talking about but can’t be talked about publicly.”

“There needs to be a balance between keeping the operations running and respecting the public’s right to information.”

“Disclosing information would help improve official credibility and convey confidence to the private sector,” Hu added. Meanwhile, the lack of answers from China’s spokesperson is only fuelling speculation on social media. “Does she not know how to respond?” BBC quoted one Weibo user as saying. “The reply is quite worrisome,” another added, Wu also pointed to the lack of complete censorship on Chinese social media is an interesting development. “The absence of censorship makes people wonder if there is any truth to rumours about power struggles, corruption, the abuse of power and positions, and romantic relationships,” Wu told BBC. Journalist Phil Cunningham tweeted, “Qin Gang is missing. Not only is he missing from the news cycle in China, but he’s missing from my article! As run by the SCMP (South China Morning Post) on July 15, five sentences about Qin were removed (without notice) from the article after it was accepted for publication." Qi rose to prominence as an outspoken ministry spokesperson who popularised an aggressive in-your-face style that came to be known as “wolf warrior diplomacy,” after the name of a nationalistic Chinese movie franchise. He held various positions including as the ministry’s spokesman and postings at the Chinese embassy in Britain. Qin served as Xi’s chief protocol officer between 2014 and 2018. He succeeded Wang who was elected to the Political Bureau of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), a key policy body of the party in the once-in-a-five-year congress of the party in October last year. With inputs from agencies