Rumours abound as China’s foreign minister goes missing

New Delhi: China’s foreign minister Qin Gang hasn’t been seen in public for close to a month since his last official engagements on June 25, triggering speculation about his status in a country known for its opaque methods in handling the private lives of leaders.

Qin, 57, has virtually disappeared since his meetings with visiting diplomats from Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam last month. China’s foreign ministry made a brief comment about Qin being away from work because of unspecified health reasons but those remarks were later excised from official transcripts, and authorities have declined to offer any further information.

Days ahead of a string of Asean-related meetings in Jakarta last week, including gatherings of foreign ministers under the framework of the East Asia Summit and Asean Regional Forum (ARF), China told host Indonesia that Wang Yi, director of the foreign affairs commission of the Communist Party of China, would attend in place of Qin due to “unexpected circumstances”.

India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar was among the foreign ministers who held bilateral meetings in Jakarta with Wang, and there has been no official word from Beijing as to when, and if, Qin will resume his duties.

China has also announced that Wang, who was Qin’s predecessor in the foreign ministry, will also participate in a Brics meeting in Johannesburg during July 24-25. Qin’s disappearance has also affected planned visits to China by the European Union (EU)’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Britain’s foreign minister.

Amid his disappearance, comments on articles mentioning Qin shared on the WeChat messaging app have been disabled, and a search by Reuters found no recent mentions of Qin in state media. At the same time, searches for Qin on China’s Baidu search engine have increased 28-fold in the past week to more than 380,000 a day, according to data from the platform.

Rumours and gossip have dominated conversations about Qin within diplomatic circles and on social media, and overseas Chinese commentators have suggested that an affair with a television personality might be behind the foreign minister’s problems, The New York Times reported recently.

This speculation became big news in Taiwan. When Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was recently asked about these rumours, she replied: “I have no understanding of the matter that you’ve raised.”

When Mao was asked again on Thursday at a daily news conference about Qin’s status and when he would return to his duties, she said: “I don’t have any information for your question.”

Qin, a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, was appointed foreign minister last December, at a time when China and the US were working to stabilise their rocky relationship. He came to the post after serving as the envoy to the US for 17 months.

In the past, such disappearances of senior Chinese officials have been seen as a potential sign of trouble. “Qin’s disappearance does cast much uncertainty and confusion over the consistency, stability and credibility of Beijing’s decision-making,” Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Center in Washington, told Reuters.

“If a vice-national level leader can just disappear without much of an explanation, people find it difficult to trust and count on any Chinese leader or official and their positions,” Yun said.

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