Still unexplained
The hunt for the origins of Covid-19 has for the past four years been a tangled web of politics, power struggles, and international finger-pointing.
Qin Gang was China’s foreign minister who was fired from his post and has been replaced by Wang Yi.
He was made foreign minister in December. As it opened a session on Tuesday, “China’s top legislature voted to appoint Wang Yi as foreign minister,” according to the Xinhua news agency.
Qin’s last public appearance was about a month ago. A native of Tianjin, he has worked for the Chinese government since the late 1980s, primarily in positions involving international relations.
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Qin was seen as a rising star within the CCP and as a close confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
His appointment over more qualified candidates, first as US ambassador and subsequently as foreign minister, was credited to Xi’s confidence in him.
Qin, a native English speaker who frequently appeared in public and the media to support China’s geopolitical position, was well-known in Washington.
State broadcaster CCTV did not provide an explanation for 58-year-old Qin’s dismissal during the national evening news. The approval of Qin’s dismissal came at a meeting of the Standing Committee of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress, which typically convenes at the end of the month. Since June 25, when he conducted discussions with counterparts from Russia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, he hasn’t been spotted in public.
The meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, who arrived in Beijing less than 48 hours after the Wagner mercenary group’s uprising against Moscow’s top military command, was Qin’s last public appearance in official media.
Later, the Chinese foreign ministry said that Qin’s “health reasons” prevented him from traveling to Jakarta for the ASEAN conference.
Speculation that Qin has lost favor with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership has grown as a result of his enigmatic disappearance.
As a result of Qin’s mysterious disappearance, rumors have developed that he has fallen out of favor with the CCP leadership.
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