The official dismissal of the Chinese foreign minister, qin gang, after being missing for more than a month, has ended his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Chinese political establishment. This is an unexpected loss for a civil servant who had risen through the ranks in diplomacy as proof of his closeness to the almighty leader, Xi Jinping. His enigmatic absence has dominated international political debates and led to one of the worst internal crises for the Chinese president since he took office. a third term unprecedented last year.
After weeks of utter silence, the confirmation of his replacement by Xi’s top foreign policy adviser, Wang Yi, comes after Qin’s own ministry refused to clarify his whereabouts, and there was speculation that he was seriously ill, had made serious political mistakes, and even had an affair with a well-known TV presenter. It is an unusual political scandal involving a Xi loyalist.
His dismissal was announced Tuesday at a hastily called and exceptionally brief meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s decision-making body, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Said commission did not offer reasons for the sudden dismissal.
Qin’s rise in the Chinese hierarchy was unprecedented, a rising star in the Asian giant’s political firmament. He had been China’s ambassador to the United States for less than two years before being appointed Chinese foreign minister, and was elevated to a full member of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party without having been a substitute. In addition, in March 2023 he was appointed State Councilor, less than three months after his inauguration as minister. However, his immediate predecessor, Wang Yi, took 12 years to rise from vice foreign minister to titular minister, and another five to be promoted to state councilor.
When he was proclaimed the new foreign minister in December, he raised expectations about post-Covid diplomacy, after almost three years of strict self-imposed isolation. In his first three months in office, he seemed to have met some of those expectations, as Beijing tried to relaunch its so-called great-power diplomacy to help improve his tarnished image and salvage the country’s battered economy. Thus, the day he took office, Quin quoted Confucius stating that “kindness and goodwill are not lacking in Chinese diplomacy, but if you face jackals and wolves, there is no other choice but to face them”.
It has been a busy seven months for the ousted Qin, having, among other things, defended China against espionage charges related to the alleged spy balloon that flew over the US skies in February. In addition, he tried to present Beijing as a global broker for peace, while remaining firmly committed to supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine. Instead, during this time and in terms of the most important relations in foreign policy, andIn the US-China-Russia triangle, there has been no substantial turnaround. And while Brussels has become important to Beijing, its relationship with Moscow is a diplomatic priority.
On the other hand, it began to establish working relationships with its Western counterparts. Among them, the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinkenthe German Foreign Minister, annalena baerbockor the Dutchman, Wopke Hoekstra, were some of those who met Quin after the reopening of the country after the pandemic.
However, the first suspicious sign of the diplomat’s disappearance occurred when Beijing canceled a visit by the head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, earlier this month, under the excuse that he had “tested positive” for the coronavirus.
Captured by Chinese state media, his last public appearance was during Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko’s visit to Beijing, which took place 48 hours after the Wagner mercenary group’s failed rebellion against Moscow. Following this event, he has been conspicuously absent despite having several high-profile events scheduled.
Thus, during the last few weeks, the until now director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, has been exercising his functions. The latter has attended a series of diplomatic activities, such as the BRICS summit being held in South Africa or meetings with former US secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and John Kerrywhich took place in Beijing last week.
Despite the rumors circulating on social networks and among international diplomacy, Beijing has maintained ambiguity about the situation and whereabouts of the controversial politician, attributing his prolonged and mysterious absence to unspecified “health reasons”, and without refuting speculation about his fate. The secrecy with which the Chinese authorities have handled the scandal has aroused strong criticism and has called into question their credibility and opacity when making decisions. In turn, it has fueled uncertainty in China’s turbulent foreign relations.
However, in China it is common for officials and businessmen to disappear under the pretext of health problems or even for no reason, only to reappear weeks or months later without giving explanations or under criminal investigation. And it is that, since his rise to power in 2012, one of Xi’s star policies has been the fight against corruption. The president considers corruption an existential threat to his party and has proclaimed his desire to put an end to the “tigers” (corrupt senior officials) and the “flies” (low-level cadres). In fact, in his first year in power he sanctioned more than 180,000 officials, and in the decade that followed, 3.7 million cadres were punished by the party’s anti-bribery watchdog.
Ultimately, Qin’s troubles appear to have revealed a fundamental flaw in Xi’s staff organizational management style. For the president, political loyalty is the most important criterion when selecting his senior officials, although he also seeks to project an image of impartiality.
