Why China Fired Qin Gang As Its Foreign Minister?

International

oi-Prakash KL

China has fired its Foreign Minister Qin Gang from office and replaced him with his predecessor, Wang Yi.

In its announcement on the national evening news, state broadcaster CCTV on gave no reason for Qin’s removal. Qin dropped out of sight almost a month ago and the Foreign Ministry has provided no information about his status.

This aligns with the ruling Communist Party’s typical approach to handling personnel matters in a highly opaque political system, where media and free speech are significantly restricted. The ministry refrained from commenting on this during its daily briefing on Tuesday.

Why Qin Gang Is Fired As Foreign Minister?
Although the government has not cited the reason for firing Qin Gang as the Foreign Minister, there have been plenty of speculations over his absence. From health issues to having an extra-marital affair, all sorts of speculations have been linked to him in the last one month.

Among many rumours, what was widely speculated on the internet was his alleged affair with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV personality Fu Xiaotian with whom he reportedly has a child.

The pictures of the journalist with her infant are doing rounds on social media even as netizens have raised questions to reveal the identity of its father. . It may be recalled that she had wished Qin on his birthday after he was promoted into the Communist Party’s Central Committee.

However, since April 10, when she posted pictures from a luxury private jet en route to Beijing while in Los Angeles, there has been no communication from the journalist who was educated at Cambridge University.

“This lead to all sorts of speculation that this was an extramarital affair,” News.com.au quoted prominent analyst Bill Bishop as saying in his podcast.

The woman posted the photos of her baby from a $A90,000-a-month California mansion, he said. “And this was a child born out of wedlock in the US, which means it’s eligible for a US passport.”

“That’s not something a TV anchor would be able to afford,” Bishop added.

“So somebody was paying for these flights.” However, it has to be noted that Qin Gang is a married man and has a son.

Despite these speculations, it is still unclear whether he paid a price for his alleged affair.