Where’s Qin Gang? China international minister not seen in a month amid affair rumours

By India Today World Desk: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, has been absent from public view for almost a month now, sparking intense hypothesis about his whereabouts, as soon as once more highlighting China’s secrecy. His final public engagement was a gathering with visiting Russian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese officers on June 25. Then he disappeared.

The final time the 57-year-old rising star of Chinese politics disappeared from public view was only for eight days over the Lunar New Year Holiday.

Qin Gang was changed as head of Beijing’s delegation to the Asean summit in Indonesia. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated at the moment that Qin wouldn’t go “due to health reasons” however gave no particulars.

Talks between the international minister and European Union international coverage chief Josep Borrell had been then additionally pushed again as China knowledgeable the EU the dates had been now not potential. Beijing didn’t present any rationalization for this.

The EU was knowledgeable of the postponement simply two days earlier than Borrell’s scheduled arrival in Beijing, a supply informed Reuters.

The hypothesis was fuelled when Qin Gang was as soon as once more lacking from President Xi’s assembly with former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.He didn’t be part of Chinese officers at talks with the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, in early July, or as a part of the continued go to by local weather envoy John Kerry.

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Almost a month on, he nonetheless stays lacking and China has not spoken about this. The dialogue about his absence was apparently censored on the Chinese social media web site Weibo. A seek for “where is Qin Gang” on the platform returning the message “no results”, The Guardian reported.

Searches for “Qin Gang” on the Baidu search engine have elevated 28-fold previously week to greater than 380,000 a day, based on platform information, Reuters reported.

Qin’s absence has additionally been broadly mentioned within the diplomatic group, with some saying it’s one other instance of China’s lack of transparency.

“Given China’s status and influence in the world, it’s indeed very strange that its foreign minister has not appeared in public for more than 20 days,” said Deng Yuwen, a former editor of a Communist Party newspaper who now lives in the US, told CNN.

AFFAIR WITH A JOURNALIST?

Rumours about Qin Gang having an affair with a journalist, Fu Xiaotian, might be the reason behind his absence, The New York Times reported.

China’s ruling Communist Party officially bans cadres from having extramarital relationships, and its discipline watchdog often cites affairs when charging senior officials with corruption. However, former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli still appeared at last year’s leadership congress shortly after a scandal over a purported account of a decade-long affair.

Responding to reports that Qin was caught having an affair with a Chinese reporter, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on July 17, “I have no information to offer.”

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WHAT ARE CHINESE PEOPLE SAYING?

One of the prominent faces of the Chinese government, Qin Gang’s prolonged absence has not only been scrutinised by diplomats and China watchers, but also by ordinary Chinese people.

“Qin Gang is lacking. Not solely is he lacking from the information cycle in China, however he is lacking from my article! As run by the SCMP (South China Morning Post) on July 15, 5 sentences about Qin had been eliminated (with out discover) from the article after it was accepted for publication.”

Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times, also took to Weibo to address the rumours. “There’s one thing everyone seems to be speaking about however can’t be talked about publicly,” Hu Xijin said without referencing Qin.

“People have an interest within the story as a result of they’re interested in any secrets and techniques within the black field,” says Wu Qiang, a Beijing-based China politics commentator told the BBC.

“His disappearance has highlighted the fragility of China’s diplomacy system and high-level decision-making system.”

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Qin has been thought of a rising star in China’s political firmament. The former aide to President Xi Jinping was appointed international minister in December after serving lower than two years as ambassador to the United States.

Since taking on the international minister submit, he has performed a outstanding function in steering rocky U.S.-China ties, assembly Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing in June on the primary go to to China by the highest US diplomat in 5 years.

China has an extended historical past of sudden and infrequently unexplained official absences, notably seen throughout probably the most intense interval of Beijing’s anti-corruption marketing campaign.