China’s ‘missing’ Foreign Minister removed from post: Who is Qin Gang, and what is known of his recent absence?

He had been attending the events that Qin was supposed to attend in the last few weeks, and also met Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Johannesburg, South Africa, on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs’ Meeting, recently. A government press release had earlier cited health reasons for Qin not attending official events.

Chinese state media agency Xinhua said in an article on Tuesday that the decision was taken by the fourth session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), the NPC being China’s Parliament. It added that Yi Gang was also removed from the post of governor of the People’s Bank of China and replaced by Pan Gongsheng.

According to the Chinese government’s website, when the NPC is not in session, its Standing Committee decides on appointing ministers, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, members of the Central Military Commission, etc.

Speculations over Qin’s whereabouts were a result of many factors, firstly that China does not provide details related to the government and its functioning transparently. There is also a history of well-known personalities in the country disappearing from public view for days, over what are seen as actions disapproved of by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Industrialist Jack Ma, tennis player Peng Shuai and actress Fan Bingbing are some famous examples. All three of them re-appeared in public after some time. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also the subject of similar rumours for some time in 2012 and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who is Qin Gang?

Born in 1966, Qin rose through the ranks, starting with his appointment as a staff member of the Beijing Service Bureau for Diplomatic Missions in 1988. In his work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has held positions at the Chinese Embassy in Britain for many years. He was also appointed as a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson across two terms. Some have attributed his proximity to President Xi as the reason behind his quick rise to senior positions.

In 2021, he was appointed as the Ambassador to the United States for a relatively short period, with a promotion to the Minister for Foreign Affairs post last year.

What might be behind Qin Gang’s disappearance?

He has not been seen in public since June 25, when he met with visiting officials from Sri Lanka, Russia and Vietnam. Qin has given major international meetings a miss this month, such as when Xi and Wang Yi met former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing. Later, the US climate envoy John Kerry was received by Wang, who also attended a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) instead of Qin in Indonesia.

Several Western media outlets had raised questions about whether Qin would be seen in public by the time the G20 Summit this year will be held in New Delhi in September. They also added that it is quite possible that Qin is having health issues and might soon make a re-appearance.

BBC reported that in the past few days, China’s biggest search engine Baidu has seen a “drastic surge” in searches for Qin’s name. “According to the Baidu Index, search for “Qin Gang” has grown by more than 5,000% in a week, and his name is being searched way more than some of the most famous Chinese celebrities,” it said.

It added that one of the most widely-shared theories online said Qin was being investigated over an alleged extramarital affair and when asked about the rumour on Monday, Foreign Minister Spokesperson Mao Ning said she was not aware of the matter.

Which other Chinese public figures have ‘disappeared’ earlier?

Current President Xi has also been the subject of such speculations. This first happened in 2012, when he was set to be named the successor to CCP chief, and then Chinese President, Hu Jintao. Xi had missed meetings with then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore and then US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, reports often claimed he was ‘missing’.

Some other cases point to high-profile figures’ disappearing, followed by their return and them assuming a more low-key stature.

In 2018, actress Fan Bingbing – who has also made cameo appearances in Hollywood movies like Iron Man 3 and X-Men: Days of Future Past – disappeared from public view. Previously active on social media, she returned in April 2019 after a government investigation was conducted against her for alleged tax evasion.

She wrote a post on the social media app Weibo, saying, “Recently, I have experienced unprecedented pain and agony… I have undergone profound thought and reflection. I feel ashamed and guilty about what I have done, and I sincerely apologise to you all!” This was after China’s tax authorities ordered her to pay nearly $129 million in overdue taxes and fines, according to an exclusive South China Morning Post report.

“The star was released from “residential surveillance at a designated location” – a form of secret detention – about two weeks ago and returned to Beijing as the tax authorities completed their investigation”, SCMP added. At the time, she was among the richest actors, second to only Jackie Chan.

“One could say that every bit of the achievement I have made cannot be separated from the support of the state and the people. Without the good policies of the Communist Party and the state, without the people’s love and care, there would be no Fan Bingbing,” she also wrote.

Jack Ma, who a few years ago was dubbed the ‘Richest Man in Asia’ as the owner of e-commerce giant Alibaba, also went missing in November 2020 and since then his fortune has dwindled significantly.

Ma gave a speech in Shanghai that year in October to employees of his financial services firm Ant Group, as it prepared to launch what could have been the world’s biggest initial public offering on the stock exchange. However, after his speech, which criticised the Chinese financial system as being outdated, he was then only seen in January of the next year. After that, he kept a low profile and is now teaching at a university in Tokyo.

Similarly, in a now-deleted November 2021 post on Weibo, Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai described being coerced into having sexual relations with Zhang Gaoli, a former vice premier and member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee.

The post read like a letter to Zhang, where she questioned his actions at a house where he met Peng with his wife. According to a translation of the post reported by the Associated Press, she wrote, “That afternoon, I was very scared, I didn’t think it would be like this, one person on the outside keeping a lookout”.

The post was soon deleted, and Peng disappeared from public view for a while. Players such as Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic raised concern about her at the time and the Women’s Tennis Association or the WTA suspended matches in China for some time. She was then seen at a tournament and began posting on social media again.

Some months later she gave an interview to the French media outlet L’equipe. She termed the incident to be a misunderstanding, saying, “Sexual assault? I never said that anyone made me submit to a sexual assault…This post resulted in an enormous misunderstanding from the outside world.” On being asked why she deleted the post, she said, “Because I wanted to.”

Artist Ai Weiwei, who contributed to the design of a stadium during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was also detained in 2011 at a secret detention facility for 81 days over his criticism of the Chinese state. “Since 2008, the government of China has further strengthened its control, and the human rights situation has further deteriorated,” Ai told Associated Press in 2022.