Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang (秦剛) has not been seen in public for more than three weeks, despite a flurry of high-profile diplomatic efforts to repair ties with the US.
As a former ambassador to the US, who is considered a protege of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Qin had been expected to play a key role in a string of high-level visits by US officials, but his last public appearance was a meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart in Beijing on June 25.
He did not join Chinese officials at talks with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen earlier this month, or as part of the ongoing visit by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Xinhua / Zhang Ling
All high-level contacts between the two nations had been suspended for nearly a year, after then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year, making these trips particularly important.
Earlier this month Chinese officials also canceled a planned visit by High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, without giving a reason for the change of plan.
Qin last week was replaced as head of Beijing’s delegation to the ASEAN summit in Indonesia.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) said at the time that Qin would not go “due to health reasons,” but gave no details.
A week on, he still has not reappeared and discussion about his absence appears to have been censored on the Chinese social media site Sina Weibo, with a search for “where is Qin Gang” on the platform returning the message “no results.”
There were very few other discussions visible under his name.
Journalist and analyst Phil Cunningham said five paragraphs about Qin were cut without notice from a piece he wrote about US-China relations for the pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The paragraphs pointed out that it was an unfortunate time for a former ambassador to the US to disappear from the political scene and questioned whether it was due to illness or political disfavor.
“Qin Gang is missing. Not only is he missing from the news cycle in China, but he’s missing from my article!” Cunningham wrote on Twitter. “As run by the SCMP on 15 July, five sentences about Qin were removed (without notice) from the article after it was accepted for publication.”
Qin, 57, rose to prominence as one of the aggressive “wolf warriors” who brought a new, antagonistic style to Chinese diplomacy. Reportedly backed and promoted by Xi himself, he had been tipped to take over in future from Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅), the top foreign affairs official in the Chinese Communist Party.
The nation’s opaque political system means that it can be hard to gauge the cause of sudden disappearances by senior officials. They are sometimes a warning sign that a former power broker has fallen from political favor and their next appearance would be in court, but some breaks have a more mundane explanation, or at least do not affect careers.
Xi himself vanished from public view for two weeks shortly before being appointed leader in 2012, before reappearing to take up the post he was widely tipped for. No reason has ever been given for that brief absence.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS