Sacked foreign minister’s rise was linked to his ties to president; his disappearance and dismissal have caused a scandal
The dismissal of Qin Gang, a key Xi Jinping loyalist, from the post of Chinese foreign minister is shaping up to be one of the country’s biggest political scandals in years. Qin spent just seven months in the role, the shortest tenure of any to have served, and mysteriously disappeared from view last month. He was sacked on Tuesday, replaced with his predecessor Wang Yi, and is yet to reappear in public.
Political purgings – if that is what has happened to Qin – are not rare in China. Thousands of officials, including high-ranking political rivals of Xi, have been targeted by anti-corruption campaigns or shuffled out of view – sometimes literally, as in the case of the former president Hu Jintao, who was physically removed from his seat at a Communist party meeting in Beijing last year.
Qin was last seen at a meeting with foreign officials in Beijing on 25 June. Two weeks later, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson cited unspecified health reasons for Qin’s absence from an upcoming Asean meeting in Indonesia, and after that his absence was not mentioned again and questions from foreign reporters were dismissed.
Qin’s rise had been linked to his closeness to Xi. This week, the Washington Times quoted an unnamed Biden administration official as saying Qin was not liked by the Chinese foreign ministry. His appointment to the role was seen as a leapfrog ahead of other candidates, and analysts say a fall from grace would be highly embarrassing for Xi, whose judgment is not supposed to be questioned.
Despite Qin’s month-long absence, his dismissal and the appointment of Wang in his place appear rushed. The meeting by the standing committee that decides cabinet changes was announced with just one day’s notice, and there are signs that Wang’s return is only temporary.
“The saga is not done,” said Wen-ti Sung, a political analyst at the Australian National University’s Australian Centre on China in the World. “It certainly smells like a temporary arrangement to end further embarrassment [caused by] tasking Wang Yi with … meeting foreign counterparts when he lacks the title as foreign minister.
