Chinese parliament announces change of foreign minister

Wang Yi, head of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, has been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, previously held by Qin Gang. This was announced in the Chinese Parliament, transmits Chinese newspaper Global Times.

This appointment follows Qin Gang’s long absence from public view. There have been no public statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs since June 27, when he accepted participation in the VIII international conference “Russia and China: cooperation in a new era”, which was organized by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Wang Yi represented China at all official meetings over the past month. In particular, on July 19, he accepted former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Beijing.

July 22 Bloomberg citing sources informedthat British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley postponed his visit to Beijing due to the fact that his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang did not appear in public space for several weeks. According to one of the interlocutors, the “disappearance” of the Chinese Foreign Minister was “one of several” factors.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not officially commented on Qin Gang’s disappearance. Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the department, said she had no information she could provide about the whereabouts and state of health of the minister. In early July, the Chinese Foreign Ministry explainedthat Qin Gang will not attend the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Summit in Indonesia due to health problems.

Wang Yi has already headed the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he has held this position since 2013. In October 2022, he was appointed to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, and at the end of the year he ceased to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC. His place then took Qin Gang, who served as the Republic’s ambassador to the United States.