Mystery as China’s foreign minister ‘goes missing’
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China’s foreign minister has not been seen in nearly a month, leading to speculation over his whereabouts in a country where the private lives of senior officials are shrouded in secrecy.
Qin Gang’s last public appearance was a meeting with visiting Russian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese officials on June 25.
Since then, he has missed a series of high-profile diplomatic meetings at home and abroad, including a gathering of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers in Jakarta earlier this month. He will likely miss a Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit in Johannesburg next week.
He was conspicuously absent from a meeting of high-level foreign delegates in Beijing this week, including Henry Kissinger, and a rare visit by Ukraine’s deputy economy minister.
Other engagements also appear to have stalled. A trip to China by James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, originally slated for as early as this month has yet to be confirmed. Another by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, was cancelled by Beijing.
Unspecified ‘health reasons’
Officially, the Chinese government has said Mr Qin is away for unspecified “health reasons”, and that Wang Yi, the country’s top diplomat, would fill in at the Asean meeting.
When asked about Mr Qin’s absence at a regular news briefing on Monday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said she had “no information to provide”.
The lack of clarity over his whereabouts has led to speculation he has fallen out of favour, as is often the case when senior Chinese officials disappear from the public eye. But so far, there is nothing to suggest he has become involved in political trouble.
One rumour going around is that he had an affair with Fu Xiaotian, a Chinese television presenter.
The presenter, who has also disappeared from public view recently, could not be reached for comment by the Telegraph.
A protege of leader Xi Jinping and regarded as a loyalist, Mr Qin was seen as a rising star.
He previously served as a foreign ministry spokesman, where he gained a reputation among Western diplomats for his sharp tongue as one of China’s new “wolf warrior” diplomats.
He was promoted to foreign minister after serving as China’s ambassador to the United States for less than two years.
Since returning to Beijing, he has played a key role in overseeing US-China relations, including meeting with Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, for more than five hours in June.
