The strange disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has become a major embarrassment for the regime in Beijing, as speculation grows that he has been silenced and purged for political reasons or personal misbehavior.
Daniel R. Russel, a former senior U.S. diplomat who now works for the Asia Society Policy Institute, told the far-left New York Times (NYT) on Monday that Qin’s disappearance is “embarrassing and unsettling to Chinese diplomats because of the uncertainty it injects in a system that is tightly controlled.”
“For foreign diplomats it raises even more questions about the bureaucratic weight of China’s foreign ministry,” Russel added.
“Secrecy is the chosen mode of operation because for the Chinese Communist Party, information is a weapon, but in this case, the mystery surrounding such an important official — foreign minister — is mind-boggling,” marveled Jamestown Foundation senior fellow Willy Wo-Lap Lam.
Qin’s abrupt disappearance follows a swift rise through the Chinese bureaucracy. He began as a diplomatic staffer in 1988, became an embassy official and Foreign Ministry spokesman by 2010, took over as director of the protocol department in 2014, and was appointed vice minister of Foreign Affairs in 2018.
Qin worked personally with dictator Xi Jinping while running the protocol department, a close relationship that paved the way for his last two leaps up the career ladder: ambassador to the United States in July 2021 and promotion to foreign minister in December 2022.
Hellbound and Down 