Did an affair lead to the disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang? He has not appeared in public for more than three weeks. Speculations about the reasons are piling up.
There is speculation in China about what happened to Foreign Minister Qin Gang. The 57-year-old has been missing from the public for more than three weeks. Qin Gang’s last public appearance was on June 25, when he received Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko in Beijing. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has released a photo of the meeting.
China’s foreign minister was supposed to meet EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in Beijing on July 10, but the communist state and party leadership canceled the meeting without giving a reason. Qin Gang also did not attend the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Indonesia last week. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said when asked last Tuesday that Qin Gang could not go to the meeting for health reasons.
Rumors and speculation are piling up
Nevertheless, there are many rumors, including on the Internet, about what could have happened to the Chinese foreign minister, who is considered a close confidant of state and party leader Xi Jinping. Among other things, it is speculated that Qin Gang could have had an affair with a Hong Kong television presenter who has also disappeared from the public eye.
It is not uncommon for politicians or celebrities to disappear from public view in China. Often when they conflict with leadership or are overly critical. The rumors are also fueled by the fact that China’s political system is extremely opaque. Officials of the extremely authoritarian Communist Party generally live in complete isolation. The state-controlled Chinese media does not report on the case, and the censors delete rumors on the Internet.
“Disappearance” common procedure in China
However, the case of Peng Shuai shows that an affair does not necessarily mean that the almost exclusively male Chinese politicians lose face. The tennis player accused former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual abuse in November 2021. While Peng Shuai then disappeared from public view for weeks, Zhang Gaoli, now 76, continued to perform at official events.