Missing or not missing? Qin Gang's references reappear on Chinese foreign ministry site

Reference to China's dismissed foreign minister Qin Gang, who has not been seen in public for weeks, had been removed from the website of China's foreign ministry by July 26. But now, the references to him have started to reappear.

There's a global buzz over Qin's absence as China China is notoriously famous for the sudden disappearances of notable figures.

Meanwhile, China on Thursday slammed "malicious hype" around Qin's removal from the post. Beijing continued to avoid questions about the senior diplomat's disappearance.

On being asked about the same, spokeswoman Mao Ning insisted China has released information about recent personnel changes "in a timely manner".

She added, "We consistently oppose malicious hype of this matter."

Explained: The curious case of China's Qin Gang - missing since June 25

Mao said on Thursday: What I can tell you is that China's diplomatic work has always been carried out under the centralised and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee."

Recently, Qin has been scrubbed from the foreign ministry's website, with searches for his name yielding no results. Previous articles about his diplomatic appearances showed a message saying the page "does not exist or has been deleted".

Mao said that "the foreign ministry website will be updated in a timely manner in accordance with relevant management regulations," and she also added that "please have a look after the website is updated, OK?"

Qin Gang missing since June 25

China has not given any explanation for Qin's dismissal and rather remained a bit secretive besides even installingveteran diplomat Wang Yi on his previous post of foreign minister.

Earlier this week, Qin was removed from office by Beijing's highest legislative body after only 207 days in the role.

He has not been seen in public since June 25 when he met Russia's deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko in Beijing, but China remained silent for weeks about the fate of Qin.

China's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment and Chinese state media did not say why he was removed.

State news agency Xinhua reported that President Xi Jinping signed a presidential order to make the decision effective.

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The 57-year-old Qin was a former aide to President Xi Jinping. He was also an envoy to the United States.

He took over the foreign ministry in December. There have been speculations that Qin might have fallen out of favour.

China analyst Bill Bishop wrote in his Sinocism newsletter, "If he were a comrade in good standing who had fallen ill I am not sure that would be happening."

Neil Thomas, who is a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a US think tank, agreed. "Evidence is emerging suggesting this is indeed a political purge," Thomas said on Twitter, which is now rebranded as X.

(With inputs from agencies)

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