LEAH MILLIS / PHOTO OF THE POOL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, right, at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China, June 18. In an announcement on Tuesday, state media did not explain why Qin’s dismissal, but it comes after he disappeared about a month ago amid speculation about his private affairs and political rivalries.
THOMAS PETER/PHOTO OF THE POOL THROUGH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang attends a joint press conference with his Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, following their assembly in Beijing, China, on May 23. Expired on Tuesday, state media did not explain why Qin’s dismissal, but this comes after he disappeared about a month ago amid speculation about his private affairs and political rivalries.
BEIJING (Xinhua) — China fired its outgoing foreign minister on Tuesday and replaced him with his predecessor in an unusually scheduled meeting, a move that fueled rumors about what might happen to the country’s Communist Party elite.
The resolution to remove Qin Gang after less than a year and upgrade him to Wang Yi appears to mark a significant upgrade in the ambitious foreign policy pursued in recent years by leader Xi Jinping, who oversees the world’s second-largest economy — and a country that is America’s main rival for foreign influence. Officials said the same about Qin’s departure after learning of the move.
In its announcement on the national evening news, state broadcaster CCTV gave no explanation for Qin’s dismissal. Within minutes, all mentions and photographs of him were removed from the Foreign Ministry’s online page. The central government’s online page as a Cabinet-level State Councillor, a conceivable sign that his political career was not completely over.
He had disappeared from public view just a month ago and the Foreign Ministry has not provided any information on his condition. This is in line with the popular technique of the ruling Communist Party to body workers in a highly opaque political formula where the media and freedom of expression are seriously restricted. The party rarely shows its technique or its way of thinking when it makes a gesture like this.
The ministry did not comment at its daily briefing on Tuesday.
The move comes amid a foreign backlash opposing China’s increasingly competitive foreign policy, of which Qin was one of the leaders. simply give it a military foothold in the South Pacific and reject requests for more data on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in China in late 2019.
Adding to the mystery surrounding Qin’s accusation, it was approved at an unusually scheduled assembly of the Standing Committee of China’s Rubber Seal Legislature, the National People’s Congress, which usually meets at the end of the month. This has produced hypotheses about what might be going on. in the scenes, and whether he was directly similar to Qin and the rumors circulating on Chinese Internet sites about his private life, politics in general, or both.
WHO IS QIN GANG?
Qin, who comes from a hardline circle of relatives of party luminaries, last gave the impression on camera of a meeting with Sri Lanka’s foreign minister in Beijing on June 25. A tactic used infrequently across the party and government, he deleted the reference from his official transcript of the press conference and has since said he had no information.
Wang, Qin’s predecessor and now his replacement, had in the past been China’s most sensible diplomat as head of the party’s foreign affairs office. With no other serious suitors, it seemed very likely that he would occupy this position at least in the short term. He was in South Africa on Tuesday for diplomatic meetings and was scheduled to make a stopover in Turkey on Wednesday.
The reorganization of China’s diplomatic composition does not necessarily imply a change in foreign policy, adding continuation to Russia’s war against Ukraine. However, this follows the US Secretary of State’s vacation. human rights, technology, territorial claims of Taiwan and China in the South China Sea.
Earlier in his career, Qin had been a spokesperson for the ministry. During this time, he gained a reputation for criticizing the West and rejecting all accusations against China. This is known as “wolf warrior” diplomacy, named after a nationalist film franchise.
He then headed the ministry’s protocol department, which reportedly attracted the attention of Xi, head of state and head of the Communist Party. Qin was appointed ambassador to Washington from July 2021 to January this year, a relatively short period that presaged his rise. as head of China’s diplomatic service.
“Qin Gang’s downfall is as unforeseen and brutal as his rise above the heads of many seasoned diplomats,” said Danny Russell, who was the most sensible U. S. diplomat for Asia under Obama and is most recently vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute. York. ” Since either move is attributed to the Chinese leader, this episode will actually be noted as an embarrassing error of judgment in the most sensitive one. “
HOW THIS MAY AFFECT U. S. RELATIONS US-CHINA
The United States has introduced a wave of international relations with China in recent weeks in hopes of reviving relations that have reached historic lows. In Washington on Tuesday, a U. S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the inner thinking of Biden’s management said he did not think Qin’s ouster would have a significant impact. Later that day, management said the move would in no way intend for the U. S. to do so. The U. S. government aims to promote a high-level discussion with the Chinese.
“It’s up to China to make a decision on who its foreign minister is,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday. keep the lines of communication open. “
This was reflected recently in visits to Beijing through Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and meteorological envoy John Kerry, who met with officials, and added Premier Li Qiang, last week. Former centenarian diplomat Henry Kissinger, respected in China for helping break the ice on relations in the early 1970s, also made the and secured a meeting with Xi.
China has an opaque political formula subsidized through tight controls on the media and civil society, making it difficult to assess how China’s leaders view dating at the moment.
Xi is the ultimate authoritarian and nationalist leader in decades and has taken a hard line on sovereignty claims over the South China Sea and threatened to attack Taiwan’s autonomous island democracy. minorities and in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
QIN’S RHETORIC WAS SOMETIMES UNRESTRAINED.
During his time as spokesman and minister, Qin defended those positions in strident terms, noting in March that “if the United States does not slow down, but continues to accelerate in the wrong way, no amount of guardrails can save it from derailment and it will not actually be conflicts and confrontations.
“Such a festival is a foolhardy gamble, as what is at stake are the basic interests of the two peoples and even the long-term interests of mankind,” Qin said.
However, a window of opportunity remains open, especially if Xi makes a state in the United States later this year, when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute for International Cooperation. Affairs at Renmin University in Beijing.
“If the window of opportunity can also be seized to put China-U. S. relations on track, relations may not go ahead next year,” when the U. S. will basically focus on election season, Wang said.
Conflicts have sometimes overshadowed grand economic and trade relations, but the sides can still work together on politically biased issues such as climate change, Mr. Wang.
The two countries are looking for a way to handle “the world’s largest and most confusing bilateral relations,” said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at the prestigious Nanjing University in eastern China.
AP diplomat Matthew Lee and AP reporters Suzan Frazer in Turkey and Gerald Imray in South Africa contributed to this report.
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