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It is strange and surreal, even by the standards of the looking-glass world of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Foreign minister Qin Gang has disappeared, not seen in public since June 25 and the information vacuum about his whereabouts has inevitably been filled with all manner of rumor about marital infidelity, a lovechild and even the dark world of foreign espionage.
First the facts, as far as there are any. Qin, a former ambassador to the United States is a protégé of CCP leader Xi Jinping. He was regarded as a rising star, one of the new generation of aggressive “wolf warrior” diplomats and was appointed foreign minister in December ahead of others who were regarded by China watchers as more senior. He was expected to play a key role in putting relations with the United States back on a more stable footing. His last public appearances were with officials from Sri Lanka and Russia, according to his ministry’s website. Then nothing. The best explanation that the foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has been able to offer is that she has “no information,” “no knowledge of the situation,” and that “diplomatic activities were continuing normally.”
Ill-health is of course a possibility. That was suggested when he was replaced as head of Beijing’s delegation to a regional summit in Jakarta. But there seems no reason why a health issue should be covered up, especially when the absence of information fuels rumors — rumors given further currency by CCP censors quickly moving to scrub his name from the internet. A search for “where is Qin Gang” returned “no results” on China’s Weibo social media platform.
Overseas Chinese commentators are having a field day, speculating that an affair with a high-profile television personality might be behind Qin’s absence. This has created a particular frenzy in the Taiwanese media, amid further rumors that the woman has a child by the foreign minister. Asked about these unsubstantiated rumors, the hapless Mao Ning at the foreign ministry said, “I have no understanding of the matter that you’ve raised” — which wasn’t quite a denial.
The problem with this theory is that for all Xi Jinping’s apparent concern with moral rectitude, keeping a mistress is not unusual among the grey men who run China. And when they have been caught out, the party has tended to protect its own. This was the case when tennis star Peng Shuai in 2021 accused retired Chinese vice premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. She had been involved in a long extramarital affair with Zhang, but in this case, it was Peng who was disappeared.
Neither are disappearances uncommon in China. The party’s anti-corruption inspectorate runs its own dark network of jails and interrogation centers into which business people and opponents of Xi regularly vanish for weeks or months without word. They have become an occupational hazard for entrepreneurs as Xi has turned up the heat on private business. The problem with this theory is that anti-corruption probes are frequently thinly disguised purges of Xi’s opponents, and Qin was — or appeared to be — a Xi loyalist and protégé.
Which is where the espionage theories come in. One rumor is that Qin might have been compromised in some way — even that the alleged mistress was a double agent. She tweeted from what appeared to be a private jet parked up in Los Angeles in April, sharing three photographs: the aircraft, an image from an interview she’d conducted with Qin and a selfie of her cradling her baby. That tantalizing post was the Cambridge-educated presenter’s last before she too appeared to vanish. The espionage rumor mill was powered further by the reported detention of several members of China’s strategic missile command.
All of which is intriguing — and possibly complete nonsense. Nothing has been substantiated, such is the lack of transparency in the Chinese political system. Though what can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that if Qin has been purged it reflects extremely poorly on the judgment of Xi Jinping.
This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.
