China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has not been seen in public for over three weeks, despite a flurry of high-profile diplomatic efforts to repair ties with the United States.
As a former ambassador to Washington DC, who is considered a protege of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, 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 25 June. He did not join Chinese officials at talks with the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, in early July, or as part of the ongoing visit by climate envoy John Kerry.
All high-level contacts between the two countries had been suspended for nearly a year, after US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last August, making these trips particularly important.
In early July Chinese officials also cancelled a planned visit by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, without giving a reason for the change of plans.
Last week Qin was replaced as head of Beijing’s delegation to the Asean summit in Indonesia. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin 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 Weibo, with a search for “where is Qin Gang” on the platform returning the message “no results”.
Some comments have been overlooked – or permitted – by the censors. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press conference was silent about Old Qin’s whereabouts except for health factors, which inevitably makes people suspicious,” wrote one netizen on Monday. Other comments speculated about other unproven reasons for Qin’s absence.
Journalist and analyst Phil Cunningham said five sentences about Qin were cut without notice from a piece he wrote about US-China relations for the pro-Beijing Hong Kong paper, the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The paragraphs pointed out that it was an unfortunate time for a former ambassador to Washington to disappear from the political scene, and questioned whether it was due to illness or “political disfavour”.
“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 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 on July 15, five sentences about Qin were removed (without notice) from the article after it was accepted for publication. https://t.co/YAoWhLtiRa pic.twitter.com/gN6prwKJ93
— Phil Cunningham (@jinpeili) July 17, 2023
Qin, 57, rose to prominence as one of the aggressive “wolf warriors” who brought a new, antagonistic style to Chinese diplomacy in recent years. Reportedly backed and promoted by Xi himself, he had been tipped to take over in future from Wang Yi, as the top foreign affairs official in the Chinese Communist party.
The country’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 favour, and their next appearance will 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 China’s top 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.
• This article was amended on 18 July 2023 to correct the spelling of John Kerry’s surname.
