China's foreign minister Qin Gang absence from public view highlights Beijing's lack of transparency
D
espite a diplomatic calendar in Beijing crammed with high-profile engagements, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang has been absent from public view for more than three weeks, prompting rampant speculation and highlighting country's lack of transparency, reported Al Jazeera.
Qin's prolonged absence has sparked a flurry of rumours about his whereabouts and brought attention to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, which controls the second-largest economy in the world, for its lack of transparency.
Since June 25, when he conducted discussions with colleagues from Russia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, Qin has not been spotted in public.
Qin's final public appearance was captured by state media when Andrey Rudenko, the deputy foreign minister of Russia, visited Beijing for less than 48 hours after the Wagner mercenary group's failed rebellion against Moscow.
Since then, Qin has been noticeably absent from high-profile diplomatic events in Beijing.
Josep Borrell, the head of the European Union's foreign policy, was scheduled to meet Qin on July 4, but EU officials said that China cancelled the discussions without providing a reason and with only a few days' notice.
Then, Qin skipped talks with US climate envoy John Kerry and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that were being closely watched.
Last week, at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference in Jakarta, senior diplomat Wang Yi, who formerly held the position of Qin and is superior to the foreign minister in the CCP pecking order, represented China at a meeting of foreign ministers.
According to the Chinese foreign ministry, Qin's absence was reportedly due to "health reasons" at the time, but the reason was omitted from the official transcripts. Since then, Chinese officials have avoided inquiries concerning Qin's condition or whereabouts.
Due to the lack of transparency, there has been a flurry of speculative activity inside and outside China, including unproven allegations that Qin has fallen out of favour with the leadership, according to Al Jazeera.
On the official website of the Chinese foreign ministry, Qin is still listed as the foreign minister.
Qin, a professional diplomat, has long been considered both a rising star within the CCP and a close confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Qin personified Beijing's recent shift towards muscular "wolf warrior" diplomacy.
The 57-year-old native of Tianjin has worked for the Chinese government since the late 1980s, mostly in positions involving international relations.
Prior to being appointed as China's foreign minister, Qin held a number of diplomatic positions, including vice minister for foreign affairs, head of the foreign affairs spokesperson, and various posts in the Chinese embassy in the UK.
From 2014 until 2017, Qin also held the position of head of the protocol division, putting him in charge of planning Xi's international trips and in close proximity to the Chinese president.
Most recently, Qin held the poUS ambassador position for 11 months. His selection was largely seen as an indication that Xi was stepping up his "wolf warrior" diplomacy.
Qin has rejected the characterisation of Xi's China using "wolf warrior" diplomacy while arguing that Chinese diplomats have no choice but to defend their country if faced with "jackals or wolves," as per Al Jazeera.
In China, it is uncommon for high-profile individuals to vanish for an extended length of time without cause, yet famous business personalities and celebrities have been more frequently affected in recent years than politicians.
The founder of Alibaba Jack Ma, the actress Fan Bingbing, and the Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai are just a few of the well-known people who have temporarily disappeared from the public eye in recent years.
Famous people have occasionally reappeared months or even years later to face accusations of crimes.
Nearly everyone who is tried in China is found guilty, and authorities frequently bar suspects from contacting their families or the outside world for extended periods of time.
After mainland Chinese operatives kidnapped Xiao Jianhua from a high-end Hong Kong hotel in 2017, China did not provide any updates on his whereabouts for more than three years. Jianhua was a Chinese-Canadian millionaire who oversaw the financial affairs of the families of key CCP members, according to Al Jazeera.
A Shanghai court sentenced Xiao to 13 years in jail in 2022 for accepting bribery and other offences connected to corruption.
After being detained in China in 2018, Meng Hongwei, the then-director of Interpol, was absent for several weeks. In 2020, Meng got a 13-and-a-half-year prison term, for bribery, from a Chinese court.
A well-known billionaire investment banker named Bao Fan vanished for two weeks in February. Later, his company said Bao was "cooperating in an investigation" without going into additional detail.
Xi himself vanished from the public eye for two weeks prior to the CCP's once-a-decade leadership transition in 2012, sparking rumours that the then-vice president had fallen out of favour.
Bo Xilai, the former Communist party secretary of Chongqing, disappeared from public view for several months in 2013 before receiving a life sentence for corruption after his wife was found guilty of killing a British businessman. This was one of the most spectacular falls from grace from the CCP's inner circle in recent memory.
In 2015, Zhou Yongkang, the former head of China's security services, became the most senior CCP official yet to be purged after he was sentenced to life in prison on corruption charges, Al Jazeera reported.
Steve Tsang, director of SOAS China Institute in London, said that the circumstances of Qin's absence suggest he has fallen out of favour with Beijing.
"It is not exceptional for senior officials to disappear in China, but apart from Xi Jinping who disappeared himself for nearly two weeks or so in the run-up to the 18th Party Congress, others disappeared. In the latter cases, they were usually in trouble - under arrest or investigation - when public references to them re-appeared," Tsang told Al Jazeera.
"The Xi case was unusual as he was by then the heir apparent and, with the benefit of hindsight, disappeared himself in a tactical move to get his way," Tsang added.
"Qin is not senior or powerful enough to play the game Xi played a decade back. More likely than not, Qin's disappearance is not voluntary, in which case, it is more likely that he is in trouble. Being someone promoted on the fast track by Xi, only Xi can punish Qin," Al Jazeera reported.
✔️ China's foreign minister Qin Gang absence from public view highlights Beijing's lack of transparency
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