BEIJING: China’s former foreign minister Qin Gang, who was absent from public duties since last June, has stepped down from the country’s top legislature, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China’s state-run media on Tuesday reported that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, said Qin’s resignation was accepted by the Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress, to which he belonged. The report did not provide any reason for why Qin, who was dismissed in July 2023, had resigned.
In July last year, according to CNN report, the Foreign Ministry of China removed all activities and traces of Qin Gang as foreign minister including the information on the meeting that took place between him and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing.
Qin was last seen in public on June 25, 2023 when he met his counterparts from Russia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. His planned meetings since then have either been cancelled, or top diplomat Wang Yi has gone in Qin’s place, according to an earlier report in The Washington Post.
Wang had represented China at diplomatic summits in Jakarta and Johannesburg in place of Qin. The US publication stated that Qin’s removal preceded weeks of silence during which Qin’s own ministry refused to provide any information regarding his whereabouts, there has been wild speculation about everything from significant political or personal missteps to a serious sickness.
A week before Qin vanished, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met him in Beijing, and they made an agreement that the Chinese foreign minister would reciprocate by travelling to Washington, according to the Washington Post.
Similarly, after disappearing from public view in August last year Li Shangfu was formally removed as China’s Defence minister and as a Central Military Commission member on October 24. 2023, but no explanation has ever been given as to why.
The ascension of China’s 14th defence minister, Admiral Dong Jun, who formerly commanded the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). was announced by the Standing Committee on December 29, 2023.
Mystery also surrounds Wei Fenghe, the Defence minister before Li Shangfu, who also disappeared last year. Interestingly, Wei was the first head of the PLA Rocket Force (PLARF), a branch of the Chinese military.
Indeed, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) officially dismissed nine top generals from its legislature on December 29, 2023. No reason was given for their disqualification, but since NPC representatives enjoy immunity from arrest or criminal charges, stripping them of their roles is a necessary prerequisite to punishments being meted out.
Of the nine, five had connections with the PLARF. Specifically, those ousted included PLARF commander Li Yuchao; a PLARF deputy commander Li Chuanguang; former PLARF deputy commander Zhang Zhenzhong, who was most recently deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department; Zhou Yaning, former commander of the PLARF from 2017-22; and Lu Hong, another member of the PLARF. (ANI)