China’s Foreign Minister, Chen Gang, has not appeared for nearly a month, which has raised speculation about his fate and whereabouts in a country where the private lives of senior officials are shrouded in complete secrecy.
Chen’s last public appearance was during his meeting with Russian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese officials, who were on a visit to China, on June 25, according to the newspaper.telegraph” British.
Since then, he has missed a series of high-level diplomatic meetings at home and abroad, including a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta earlier this month.
He is also likely to miss the BRICS summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Johannesburg next week.
Chen missed a meeting of high-ranking foreign delegates in Beijing this week, including Henry Kissinger, and during a rare visit by Ukraine’s deputy economy minister (the first Ukrainian official to visit Beijing in 4 years).
In addition, the visit of British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to China, which was scheduled for the beginning of the month, has not yet been confirmed.
Beijing also canceled another visit by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
🇨🇳 Cleverley is not traveling to China because of the “disappearance” of the Chinese foreign minister
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang last appeared on June 25 when he met with officials from Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam . pic.twitter.com/afL65Kf6en
— Spriter Team (@SpriterTeam) July 22, 2023
Unspecified “health reasons”.
Officially, the Chinese government said on the eve of the “ASEAN” summit that Chen is absent for unspecified health reasons, and that Wang Yi, the country’s chief diplomat, will carry out his duties during the meeting.
When a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry was asked about the absence of the minister, during a press conference held in China on a regular basis, she said that “she has no information to provide.”
The lack of clarity about the whereabouts of the Chinese minister, and the reasons for his absence, has raised several speculations, but “there is still no indication of his involvement in political problems,” according to the British newspaper.
One widespread rumor is that he was having an affair with Fu Xiaotian, a Chinese TV presenter.
The presenter, who recently disappeared from public view, was accused of flirting with Chen in an interview in March last year, which in China is considered a violation of Ministry of State Security regulations.
Chen was a close confidant of the president, Xi Jinping, and is considered a staunch loyalist.
He previously served as a spokesperson for the State Department, where he gained prominence among Western diplomats.
After that, he was promoted to Minister of Foreign Affairs after serving as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States for a period of no more than two years.
Since his return to Beijing, Chen has played a key role in overseeing US-China relations, including meeting with Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, for more than five hours last June.
#Mystery #disappearance #Chinas #foreign #minister…and #rumors #reason
2023-07-22 18:51:25
