Where is Chen Gang? The Chinese foreign minister has not appeared in public for three weeks

On June 25, the 57-year-old entertained, among others, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko in Beijing, but has not appeared in public since. On July 10, Chen Gang was supposed to meet with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell, but China canceled the appointment a few days earlier. No reason is given.

Qin Gang also did not attend a summit meeting of Southeast Asian countries’ ASEAN foreign ministers last week. Instead, the Chinese chief diplomat Wang Yi, still above Qin Gang in the hierarchy, traveled to the meeting. According to a ministry spokesperson, Chen Gang was not there for health reasons. When asked again on Monday about the minister’s long absence, the spokeswoman said she had “no information” on the subject.

His absence is striking, especially now that a number of important visits by high-ranking American diplomats are on the agenda. Nor was he present during the visit of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, or during the current visit of climate envoy John Kelly.

Journalist Phil Cunningham wrote an article for the newspaper South China Morning Post About the minister. According to him, five paragraphs were simply deleted from his text. She said it was an unfortunate moment to disappear from the political scene. Cunningham also wondered if it was due to illness, or “political contemptDiscussions about Gin Gang’s absence also appear to have been censored on Chinese social media Weibo.