Speculation about Qin Gang remained rampant, a day after he was removed as China’s foreign minister just seven months into the job. No reason was given for Mr. Qin’s removal, which was announced after an emergency meeting. His predecessor Wang Yi has been reappointed to the post.
China’s decision to reappoint its top diplomat Wang Yi as foreign minister one month after former rising star Qin Gang disappeared from public view means Washington will be dealing with a familiar face in its bid to steady relations with its main strategic rival.
But Wang’s return to a post he held for most of the past decade is unlikely to alter the trajectory of a troubled bilateral relationship or dispel concerns about the opaque workings of President Xi Jinping’s government.
Official silence over Mr. Qin’s unexplained disappearance from public view for the past month had sparked speculation both in China and abroad. Social media was full of searches and speculation over his abrupt dismissal.
Tuesday’s brief announcement on state media which said only “China’s top legislature voted to appoint Wang Yi as foreign minister”, has only added fuel to the fire. It is unusual for rumours about such a senior official to be discussed on the Chinese internet without complete censorship, observers say.
The 57-year-old, seen as a close associate of Chinese President Xi Jinping, was one of the youngest appointees to the post in China’s history. The abrupt fall from grace of China’s rising star. Just over a month ago, he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing as the two sides sought to restore diplomatic contacts at the highest level.
Qin Gang was one of the best-known faces of the Chinese government. When he disappeared from his normal duties a month ago and failed to attend a summit in Indonesia, the very brief official explanation given was unspecified health problems. Mr. Qin is one of the most high-level officials in the Chinese Communist Party to have been absent for this long.
But it is not uncommon for high-profile figures in China to go out of public view for long periods of time, only to surface later as the subject of a criminal investigation. Or they could reappear with no explanation.
Xi Jinping himself vanished for a fortnight shortly before becoming China’s leader in 2012, prompting speculation about his health and possible power struggles within the party.
Wang Yi, a career diplomat who speaks Japanese, is returning to a post he held between 2013 and 2022. The 69-year-old has been standing in for Mr. Qin in recent weeks. Mr. Wang was promoted to the Politburo of the ruling Chinese Communist Party last year and is concurrently the head of the party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission.
Observers see his appointment as a move to stabilize Chinese diplomacy.
Washington-based analysts say Wang’s return to the ministry should help China’s foreign ministry resume normal operations after weeks of international speculation about Qin’s fate. But it is unlikely to yield any major improvement in tense U.S.-China relations, which have hit their lowest point in decades.
“Wang Yi has held the foreign minister position before. He’s clearly a fireman or caretaker who has been sent to right the ship to keep Chinese foreign policy going smoothly. And I think he’ll do that because he’s very, a very capable official,” Mr. Johnson said.
