CHINA has named veteran diplomat Wang Yi its new foreign minister, removing former rising star Qin Gang after a mysterious one month absence from duties barely half a year into the job.
Qin, 57, a former aide to President Xi Jinping and envoy to the US, took over the ministry in December but has not been seen in public since June 25 when he met visiting diplomats in Beijing.
The ministry has said he was off work for health reasons without giving details, sparking speculation and drawing attention to the secrecy often surrounding China’s Communist leadership and decision making.
Qin’s successor Wang, 69, was also his predecessor, holding the post from 2013-2022 as ties frayed with rival superpower the US to a point Beijing described as an all-time low. He has filled in for Qin during his absence and this week represented China at a national security advisers’ meeting of BRICS countries in Johannesburg.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Qin on June 18, on the first visit by America’s top diplomat to China in five years. The US State Department said then they held ‘candid, substantive, and constructive’ talks and Blinken invited Qin to Washington to continue discussions. Blinken subsequently met Wang on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Jakarta in Qin’s absence.
Chinese state media did not say why Qin was removed and China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Xi signed a presidential order to make the decision effective, state news agency Xinhua reported. “The lack of an explanation opens more questions than provides answers,” said Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
“It also underscores the opacity and unpredictability, even arbitrariness in the current political system.” Qin’s apparent disappearance was not the first unexplained absence of a Chinese official. Industry minister Xiao Yaqing vanished from public view for nearly a month last year before it was revealed he was being investigated for corruption.
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