Beijing replaces disappeared Foreign Minister Qin Gang with his predecessor

Beijing has removed Foreign Minister Qín Gāng 秦刚 from his post, and replaced him with the country’s most senior foreign affairs official, former Foreign Minister Wáng Yì 王毅.

Wang has been director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office since January 2023, when Qin replaced him a Foreign Minister, a role Wang had held since 2013.

The decision was announced at a special session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee today, and reported tersely by various state media.

Qin, 57, has not been seen in public since a June 25 meeting with officials from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Russia in Beijing. All kinds of rumors to explain his absence have been circulating about Qin, including that he is being sidelined for an extramarital affair with a TV journalist, but the Standing Committee did not comment on his whereabouts, highlighting the opaque nature of decision-making at the Party’s senior levels.

The Standing Committee today also made two announcements of an unsensational nature and that had been expected: Yì Gāng 易纲 will depart his post as governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), to be replaced by the current deputy governor and PBoC Party Secretary Pān Gōngshèng 潘功勝; and a draft amendment to China’s Criminal Law was reviewed.

The NPC Standing Committee holds a session once every two months, usually near the end of even-numbered months, but interim sessions can be scheduled by the committee’s chairman, currently Zhào Lèjì 赵乐际.

Update: At the July 26 daily press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Máo Níng 毛宁 spent several uncomfortable minutes declining to answer questions from journalists about Qin. As of July 28, there has been no explanation for his disappearance from the Chinese government.