China’s ex-foreign minister is gone but wait for explanation goes on: ‘Not found’By Reuters
August 1, 2023
Hours after China’s top legislature convened a special meeting last week to remove foreign minister Qin Gang, photos and mentions of the 57-year-old started disappearing from his former ministry’s website.
While some of this information reappeared days later, Qin does not feature on the website’s list of “former ministers”, and for several more days a search for his name had been turning up: “Sorry, Qin Gang is not found”.
In fact, he has not been seen in public for more than a month.
The foreign ministry’s brief explanation weeks ago that this was due to health reasons, a remark later excised from official transcripts, has failed to stem a swirl of speculation not just about his fate but on how the whole saga reflects on the man that supported his meteoric rise, President Xi Jinping.
China named veteran diplomat Wang Yi to replace Qin, but gave few further clues on the reason for the change.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday said Beijing will release information in a timely matter regarding Qin and opposes “malicious hype”.
* * *
Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/08/01/chinas-ex-foreign-minister-qin-gang-is-gone-but-wait-for-explanation-goes-on/
