World Media on China: Playing Hide and Seek with Qin Gang

WASHINGTON -

Qin Gang, who had previously rocketed to the positions of foreign minister and state councilor, has plummeted even faster than that and his whereabouts are unknown. The Communist Party of China (CPC), which rules China, has yet to offer any explanation. The CCP authorities' seeming use of Qin Gang to play hide-and-seek with the world has caused concern and worry among many governments and foreign investors. According to international media and commentators, this should not be the behavior of a responsible great power.

Why Qin Gang's disappearance has received so much attention

Observers both inside and outside China generally believe that Qin's rocketing rise to the rank of Foreign Minister and State Councillor, less than a year and a half after he became Ambassador to the United States, was due to the exceptional promotion of Xi Jinping, who is now China's "one-shot, one-size-fits-all" leader of the Communist Party of China. This is all thanks to the promotion of Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, who is now "the one who sets the tone and sets the standard".

Thus, the sudden disappearance of Qin Gang, who had been specially promoted to foreign minister just six months earlier, and his dismissal from his post without any reason being given, is a development that has surprised outside observers, and even supporters of the Chinese Communist Party authorities, who have struggled to come up with a plausible explanation for it.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, thousands of Chinese officials have disappeared without warning and then been declared to be under investigation for "disciplinary violations". In today's China, "under investigation" means being thrown into what outside Chinese legal researchers refer to as a judicial black hole, where the person under investigation is held in secret, often in a location unknown to his or her family, and where he or she is not allowed to communicate with his or her family or lawyers, or when he or she will be able to do so, God only knows.

Earlier, Chinese media under Xi Jinping's control even took pride in such sudden and secret arrests and detentions. At one point, Chinese official media vigorously and colorfully publicized the fact that a high-ranking official was unaware that he was attending or chairing a meeting or making a speech hours before he was thrown into the black hole of justice. Over the past decade or so, so many high-ranking officials have been thrown into the judicial black hole in this way that even top experts on China have long been overwhelmed by the number. At the same time, the general view of the experts is that those officials who suffered such disappearances or were thrown into the judicial black hole treatment were those whom Xi Jinping wanted to fix, or those whom Xi Jinping did not see eye to eye with, or those whom he did not care about.

Obviously, Qin Gang, who was suddenly disappeared, is not one of those people. As a result, Qin's disappearance and unaccounted for whereabouts, for which there is no official reason, have attracted particular attention from the outside world.

Thus, the sudden disappearance of Qin Gang, who had been specially promoted to foreign minister just six months earlier, and his dismissal from his post without any reason being given, is a development that has surprised outside observers, and even supporters of the Chinese Communist Party authorities, who have struggled to come up with a plausible explanation for it.

Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, thousands of Chinese officials have disappeared without warning and then been declared to be under investigation for "disciplinary violations". In today's China, "under investigation" means being thrown into what outside Chinese legal researchers refer to as a judicial black hole, where the person under investigation is held in secret, often in a location unknown to his or her family, and where he or she is not allowed to communicate with his or her family or lawyers, or when he or she will be able to do so, God only knows.

Earlier, Chinese media under Xi Jinping's control even took pride in such sudden and secret arrests and detentions. At one point, Chinese official media vigorously and colorfully publicized the fact that a high-ranking official was unaware that he was attending or chairing a meeting or making a speech hours before he was thrown into the black hole of justice. Over the past decade or so, so many high-ranking officials have been thrown into the judicial black hole in this way that even top experts on China have long been overwhelmed by the number. At the same time, the general view of the experts is that those officials who suffered such disappearances or were thrown into the judicial black hole treatment were those whom Xi Jinping wanted to fix, or those whom Xi Jinping did not see eye to eye with, or those whom he did not care about.

Obviously, Qin Gang, who was suddenly disappeared, is not one of those people. As a result, Qin's disappearance and unaccounted for whereabouts, for which there is no official reason, have attracted particular attention from the outside world.

Qin Gang, Xi Jinping's valued man also missing?

On August 1, more than a month after Qin Gang's disappearance, and a week after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's nominally highest authority, announced that he had been dismissed from his post as foreign minister without giving a reason, Reuters published a report headlined, "'Not found': China's ex-foreign minister is no more, but the reason for his disappearance has been slow in coming".

The Reuters report said: "Hours after the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC) held a special session last week to remove Qin Gang from his post as foreign minister, pictures of the 57-year-old official and text about him began to disappear from the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website. Then, although some of his pictures and texts about him resurfaced a few days later, Qin no longer appeared on the list of 'former foreign ministers'. For days on end people searching for Qin Gang got the search result: 'Sorry, Qin Gang not found'."

Reuters goes on to describe Qin Gang's career history and how Qin's sudden career advancement relates to Xi Jinping: "He accomplished a triple jump in his career, going from head of the foreign ministry's protocol department to ambassador to the United States, then foreign minister, and then state councilor. By Chinese standards, this is the speed of a high-speed train."

"(In forming the leadership of the new Chinese central government,) Xi abandoned the past practice of letting serving and retired leaders vote on candidates for key officials and from there establish a list for formal adoption by the Communist Party Congress. Official media outlet Xinhua earlier reported that the names of candidate officials were determined 'under Xi's direct leadership' after Xi personally met with potential candidates and consulted with others."