Mr Qin Gang, supposedly the face of the country, has been out of the public view since June 25, missing important events such as a regional gathering of foreign ministers in Indonesia and a number of visits by senior American figures.
Ms Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Centre in Washington, said Beijing’s terse explanation is unconvincing. The cancellation without further explanation was a major “surprise if not embarrassment” to the Europeans, according to Mr Philippe Le Corre, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis.
When pressed about Mr Qin’s mysterious disappearance on Monday, a different foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said she had “no information”. “For any other country, this would be considered a huge diplomatic embarrassment. But in China, politics always dominate. Diplomacy is a second-rate activity, and the foreign minister is usually not that powerful, said Mr Le Corre.
Dr Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said Mr Qin’s case was a telling example of how the system operates. “If a vice-national level leader can just disappear without much of an explanation, people find it difficult to trust and count on any Chinese leader or official and their positions,” she said.
But Assoc Prof Wu said some rumours about the foreign minister’s health and whereabouts had been allowed to circulate on the country’s tightly controlled internet, in contrast to US President Joe Biden’s recent comments calling Mr Xi a “dictator” which were totally off limits.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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