The mystery surrounding the dismissal of Qin Gang, China's former foreign minister, has only grown murkier as new details emerged about an alleged extramarital affair with state media journalist Fu Xiaotian.
Senior officials in Beijing were told that Qin was giving his marching orders because of the relationship, uncovered by an internal investigation by the Communist Party, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. The officials were told that the formal reason for summary Qin's dismissal was "lifestyle issues," which is considered a reference to sexual misconduct.
Fu, a correspondent for Phoenix Television headquartered in Hong Kong, had previously posted about her son, Er-kin, on the Chinese social networking site Weibo without mentioning the child's father, before Qin was stripped of his foreign minister duties in July. The Financial Times and CNN both reported details about their relationship, which was believed to have begun in 2010.
Fu had a child in the United States last year through a surrogate mother, according to the Financial Times. Surrogacy is illegal in China, although Chinese courts have ruled no significant punishments in these cases.
Qin was considered a protege of President Xi Jinping and followed the Chinese leader's ascension by rising swiftly through the ranks of the Foreign Ministry. To be sure, Qin's dismissal over the affair, if true, would be rare—no national-level Chinese politicians in recent memory has been removed from office for a similar offense.
Instead, recent reporting about Qin's alleged extramarital affair with Fu have left long-time China watchers searching for an alternative explanation for the apparent downfall of the man handpicked by China's most powerful leader in decades.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, believes Xi may not have known about the personal problems associated with Qin and Li Shangfu, China's missing defense minister, until they were revealed by others in government. Their fate could also have been related to their being Xi's allies.
"By removing all old established factions by the 20th party congress, Xi has turned the whole CCP into the Xi faction. But given the nature of the politics in such a system, sub-factions among Xi's proteges would emerge. Infighting among them can and will result in others being reported to the boss, who sees a need to act," Tsang told Newsweek.
Li, whose future remains unclear, was being investigated for corruption, Reuters reported last month. Both he and Qin remain state councillors, a title roughly equivalent to a cabinet minister.
In the absence of a credible narrative out of China, there remains speculation that Qin's dismissal may have been linked to espionage activities during his time in the United States. Qin served as Beijing's top envoy to Washington for 17 months from 2021-2023. Experts were divided on the theory.
"If Xi suspected that Qin committed treason, and being a U.S. agent would have been treason, he would have severely punished Qin very quickly. This has not happened, so it cannot be the reason," said Tsang.
James Lewis, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, told Newsweek: "If the CCP was going to start dismissing people for having affairs, there would be no one left. It's either corruption, espionage or being disloyal to Xi, and espionage seems the most likely."
A child born through surrogacy, who was reportedly also a U.S. citizen, may have forced Xi's hand to act on a situation with national security implications, Lewis said. Xi has repeatedly asserted that national security is crucial to China's long-term prosperity.
According to accounts in the press, Qin and Fu first met around 2010, when he was posted to the United Kingdom as China's chargé d'affaires, and she started a new job at Phoenix TV's London bureau after completing a degree at Cambridge University.
Cambridge named a garden after Fu at Churchill College, her alma mater, after a significant donation, although the source of Fu's wealth remains unknown. Fu reportedly took a Gulfstream private jet from Los Angeles to Beijing in April. She posted her last message on the Chinese messaging app WeChat the following month.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
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