Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has been removed from office after disappearing from public view 30 days ago, abruptly ending the career of a diplomat who had soared as one of President Xi Jinping’s most trusted rising stars, the Chinese government announced Tuesday.
The official decision is Mr. Kin His replacement – and former foreign minister Wang Yi took his place – capped weeks of speculation about his future. As speculation mounted, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed Mr Qin had health problems. But the brief announcement by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s legislative council that formally appoints senior officials, did not mention health or any other reasons.
The lack of clarity is sure to fuel fan speculation among Chinese commentators and seasoned observers about the circumstances behind the most dramatic fall of a high-flying Chinese official in recent times. A widespread theory is that his problems may be related to personal violations, perhaps involving a Chinese television personality while he was ambassador to the United States.
Whatever the truth of those theories, Mr. Qin’s fall is an awkward moment for Mr. Xi, who brought Mr. Qin into his powerful role as minister ahead of other older, long-serving diplomats.
“If people want to see on the big screen the opacity of the Chinese system and how it can hobble — even temporarily — policy execution, then they’ve got a prime example of that here,” Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who studies Chinese foreign policy, said in a telephone interview. Still, he added, Mr. Xi was too powerful to suffer much damage from Mr Qin’s fall.
“This is not a make-or-break episode for Mr Xi, but his critics will get a thrill out of it, although he would not dare say so publicly,” Mr McGregor said. “If the rumors have any substance, it is a reminder that in the party system, your private life is as much subject to regulation as your public duties. However, in this case, the ambassador’s conduct has national security implications.
After last month’s drama, Mr. Qin’s successor, Mr. Wang, appears to be a safe pair. Mr Wang, 69, is a senior diplomat who is also director of the Chinese Communist Party’s Foreign Affairs Commission office, making him Mr Xi’s primary policy adviser.
57 year old Mr. Qin was appointed China’s ambassador to Washington in July 2021, and promoted to foreign minister 17 months later, marking him as a trusted protégé of Mr Xi.
Previously, Mr Qin had served as a foreign ministry spokesman, diplomat in London and protocol officer, which brought him close to Mr Xi during foreign visits. Mr. Qin graduated from the University of International Relations in Beijing, linked to China’s security service, and worked as an assistant at United Press International’s Beijing bureau before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1992.
As a protocol officer for Mr. Xi, Mr. Qin was meticulously punctual, said Pavel Slunkin, a former Belarusian diplomat. Mr Xi is involved in the arrangements for the visit to Belarus in 2015. During the visit, Mr. Slankin said, Mr. Qin called at about 2 a.m. and asked him to go immediately to the museum Mr. Xi was scheduled to visit, so Mr. Qin could go over every detail of the plans, including when the music would hit when Mr. Xi walked up some stairs.
“His subordinates and embassy staff were afraid to approach him. So communication with him was strictly hierarchical,” Mr. Slunkin, now a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said of Mr. Qin in emailed responses to questions. Mr. Qin said, “Obviously his privileged position is close to the body — to Xi.”
As foreign minister since late 2022, Mr Qin has been at the forefront of efforts to lift China out of Covid-era diplomatic isolation and ease tensions with the United States and other Western countries. But he was a combative proponent of Mr. Xi’s vision of China as a confident world power, impatient with criticism from other governments and rarely missing an opportunity to extol Mr. Xi.
“The human race stands once again at the crossroads of history,” Mr Qin told a news conference in Beijing in March. “President Xi Jinping has pointed the right path to global governance from the highest ground of the world, history and mankind.”
