Where has Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang gone?

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang's prolonged absence from public view could have a deleterious effect on US-China relations if the mystery is not unraveled, given the delicate diplomatic talks underway ahead of a meeting scheduled in November between the two countries' leaders, analysts and former US officials said.

Qin, who is closely aligned with President Xi Jinping, has not been seen in public since June 25, sparking rumors and headaches around the world. Officially, China attributes the absence to unspecified "health reasons".
The mystery deepened this week when the foreign ministry declined to provide information on Qin status during its daily briefing, then deleted the question from the official transcript. The issue does not exist, cannot exist, for Chinese officials. This reveals how little is actually known about China's domestic politics.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Chinese minister puts a strain on the country's international image

So far, Communist Party of China foreign policy chief Wang Yi — who served as foreign minister until Qin took over in late December — has addressed key meetings, including a regional meeting of foreign ministers in Indonesia and meetings with US officials. But it is not clear what his role is, in what capacity he intervenes. The appointment of the foreign minister is also an international affair because he is the counterpart in negotiations between nations. For example, important trilateral negotiations should start with Indonesia and the USA within the framework of the APEC, based on a program of meetings: who will be present?

Traditionally, the foreign minister oversees much of the choreography for important bilateral meetings. Among the immediate considerations normally on his desk would be which American official, if any, to invite for meetings in Beijing.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is reportedly next, following visits by Blinken on June 18-19, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on July 6-9 and those just concluded this week by climate envoy John Kerry.

Qin's absence was felt and negotiations with US envoys. The meeting with Blinken was cold, the one with Yellen did not see bilateral talks with Xi Jinping and in the meeting with Kerry Xi gave a speech, not an interview. The absence of the minister in charge was heavily felt.

“Chinese protocol is extremely important and how they treated Blinken had to be evaluated at a much higher level than the working level,” said the former US consul general in Chengdu. “So what is the strategy for engaging g in the United States?”

If Qin had been torpedoed, and the problems were therefore linked to him, then a series of trusted figures that the former minister brought with him to the ministry would probably also be eliminated, as always happens in any position of world government. This means that the ministry would be in a sort of reorganization and therefore partially non-operational. This would explain the gaffes and the lack of adequate preparation of the last international meetings. Meanwhile the White House and the other actors are adjusting and trying to figure out what's going on.

China has a long history of sudden and often unexplained official absences, particularly seen during the height of Beijing's anti-corruption campaign. But this has become more obvious as Qin is the international face of China, seen more often abroad than Xi or Wang despite his lower rank. Among other things, when there are no official versions then there are rumors and speculations, whether true or false.

The speculation are increasingly hot, from alleged extramarital affairs to political struggles up to the real disease. The spiciest one is that of the relationship with the journalist of Phoenix TV of Hong Kong, Fu Xiaotian, from which a son would be born. Obviously explaining the story with the "Nose of Cleopatra" always has a certain success, but it is not strange for high Chinese officials to have lovers. Indeed, the Party often selects figures with these characteristics to contain the damage. So the disappearance remains a mystery which, however, freezes Chinese international relations.

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The article Where has Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang gone? comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/dove-e-finito-il-ministro-degli-esteri-cinese-qin-gang/ on Sat, 22 Jul 2023 08:00:24 +0000.