Mystery Surrounding China's Missing Ex-Foreign Minister Deepens

China's former foreign minister Qin Gang has resigned from China's national legislature.

"Tianjin Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee has decided to accept Qin Gang's resignation as a delegate to the 14th National People's Congress," Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

Qin, the Chinese former envoy to the United States, took the office of foreign minister in January 2023. He disappeared from public view in June and was formally banished from his position as a state councilor in October.

Qin rose to power due to his personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and his downfall has left many questions unanswered. Some experts have even described him as Xi's most loyal servant.

Xi's push for securitization of all aspects of government and society has made access to the inner workings of the Chinese political system challenging to assess, even for well-honed China watchers and intelligence analysts.

Beijing has yet to officially explain Qin's dismissal as foreign minister, after he was removed from the post only six months into the role. The mystery around Qin's disappearance since June continues as various theories about his fate have been put forward.

Newsweek contacted China's Embassy in Washington D.C. for comment.

In November, China's top disciplinary body suggested that Qin may have been compromised in a veiled comment targeting China's diplomats.

"Diplomatic and foreign affairs cadres are the main force of foreign affairs work; they are on the front line of foreign exchanges, especially in the struggle with Western hostile forces, and face a relatively high risk of infiltration, incitement, and corruption" Zhang Jiwen, a senior official with the Chinese Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, had said in a now-deleted article on the website of the CCDI's biweekly journal, Newsweek reported earlier.

One explanation offered is Qin's alleged affair with former Chinese state media journalist Fu Xiaotian, who also disappeared from public view around the same time. Qin and Fu are said to have had a child out of wedlock.

Fu Xiaotian, who worked for Hong Kong-headquartered Phoenix Television, had posted photos of her son, Er-kin, on the X-like Chinese social networking site Weibo without mentioning the child's father before Qin was removed from office in July. The Financial Times and CNN had reported details about their relationship last year, which is said to have begun in 2010.

A former U.S. official told Washington Post's columnist David Ignatius's op-ed on February 12 that Fu had worked with British intelligence services for over a decade. Fu's links to the UK's intelligence services may have led to Qing's downfall, Ignatius claimed earlier in February.