Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister, has been missing from the public eye for approximately three weeks, fueling speculation about his whereabouts.
Qin didn’t show at an annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia last week. He also canceled a meeting with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, around the same time.
An EU spokesperson said they were informed the dates were “no longer possible” and provided no further explanation.
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The last time he was seen in public was in a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko on June 25. China’s Foreign Ministry said at the time that they “had an exchange of views on China-Russia relations and international and regional issues of mutual interest and concern.”
The apparent disappearance of Qin, who is thought to have close ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping and who landed this role just in December, comes at a particularly busy diplomatic period, fueling speculation that there may be trouble afoot or an early sign of political uncertainty in Beijing.
Some Chinese officials who were previously reported missing were later revealed to be detained—including Meng Hongwei, the chief of Interpol, and a senior Chinese security official who went missing for days in 2018.
Qin’s meeting with Borrell would have come just days after European countries approved a strategy that would involve obtaining critical materials from outside of China, following pressure on Beijing to take a firmer stance against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Beijing has so far failed to condemn the war and has outlined a so-called peace plan that fails to include a measure that would have Russia withdraw troops from Ukraine.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said at a news briefing last week that Qin didn’t attend the ASEAN meeting “because of health reasons,” according to Reuters. Qin skipped out on the meeting due to his “physical condition,” according to Taipei Times. The spokesperson declined to detail the condition.
But Chinese officials have since dropped that justification and speculation has swirled that his affair with a television personality is causing him trouble, according to The New York Times.
Qin met with U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken last month in China amid soaring Washington-Beijing tensions over the Chinese spy balloon that floated across the United States and China’s increasingly aggressive behavior towards Taiwan.
Before that meeting, Qin warned the United States to “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” but once the two men began discussions, Blinken and Qin had a “candid, substantive, and constructive” meeting, according to a State Department readout.
Since then, top Biden administration officials have continued visits with Chinese officials at a steady clip—but with no sign of Qin.
Earlier this month, Janet Yellen met with China’s new economic team, including the new chief, Vice Premier He Lifeng, to “deepen bilateral communications.”
John Kerry, Biden’s envoy for climate change, kicked off a round of talks Monday in Beijing with China’s top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua. The meetings mark the first formal meetings on the topic since last August, when Beijing put a stop to its engagements with the United States after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. Relations so far appear to be cordial, according to The New York Times.
Kerry’s team did not immediately return a request for comment about whether Kerry has plans to meet with Qin.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return a request for comment.
