Qin Gang was removed from office on Tuesday by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, capping weeks of speculation.
China’s 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 leaped to the top as one of President Xi Jinping’s most trusted rising stars, the Chinese government announced on Tuesday.
The official decision that Mr. Qin had been replaced — and his spot taken by the former foreign minister, Wang Yi — capped weeks of speculation about his fate. As speculation grew, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Mr. Qin had health problems. But the brief announcement by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, a council of China’s legislature that formally appoints senior officials, did not mention health or any other reasons.
The lack of clarity appears sure to fan speculation among Chinese commentators and seasoned observers about the circumstances behind one of the most dramatic falls of a high-flying Chinese official in recent times. One widespread theory is that his problems may be related to personal transgressions, possibly an affair with a Chinese television personality while he was an ambassador in the United States.
Whatever the veracity of those theories, Mr. Qin’s downfall is an awkward moment for Mr. Xi, who catapulted Mr. Qin into his powerful role as minister ahead of other older, longer-serving diplomats.
“If people wanted displayed on a wide screen the opacity of the Chinese system, and how that can — even if just temporarily — hobble the execution of policy, then they’ve got a prime example of it here,” Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney who studies Chinese foreign policy, said in a telephone interview.
