China's foreign policy

Qin with Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, archive photo. Terje Pedersen / POOL  

 

China's foreign policy

China's foreign minister has not been seen for three weeks  

 

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has not been seen in public since he met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko more than 20 days ago, CNN reports.  

 

The American television company writes that there is speculation about Qin's whereabouts. Several planned appearances have been canceled at short notice and on one of these occasions it was, according to Beijing, due to "health reasons". 

 

In several previous cases, top officials have disappeared from the public eye before it emerged that they had been imprisoned as a result of investigations by the Communist Party.  

 

 

Xi Jinping with his wife, file photo. Thomas Peter / AP  

 

China's foreign policy  

Expert: Naturally, many people start speculating about Qin  

 

That Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has not been seen for almost three weeks is very strange given China's status in the world, says Deng Yuwen, former editor-in-chief of the Communist Party newspaper and now a US-based analyst, to CNN.  

 

Deng says Beijing's lack of transparency, combined with President Xi Jinping's crackdown on dissent, leads to speculation, and that this is a problem for totalitarian regimes like China's. 

 

- If something unusual happens to a top official, people will wonder if the relationship with the top leader has deteriorated or if it is a sign of political instability.