His other roles as member of the State Council – China’s cabinet – and of the party’s top policymaking Central Committee were left unchanged.
However, the lack of official information regarding Qin’s whereabouts has raised speculation about the reason for his removal, ranging from private issues to serious political wrongdoing.
The party’s top anti-corruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, has not made any official announcements regarding Qin, who was last seen in public on June 25.
Further confusion followed when mentions of Qin and reports about his work were deleted from the foreign ministry website soon after he was replaced. But, as of Friday, the mentions had reappeared.
On Thursday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning objected to “malicious speculation” on the matter, saying all information had been released in a timely fashion. During Friday’s briefing, she urged media not to “over-decode” the issue.
Zhiqun Zhu, a professor of political science and international relations at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, said the decision to remove Qin from his foreign minister position was “meant to quell widespread speculation and rumours [about his absence], not to close the case”.
Qin was probably still under investigation since he remained a state councillor, Zhu said.
He said Qin’s dismissal and Wang Yi’s return as foreign minister were efforts to minimise disruptions to Chinese foreign policy ahead of a busy diplomatic season, with the Group of 20 summit in India in September and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the United States in November.
“Wang’s reappointment injects a certain degree of continuity and stability into Chinese foreign policy. It’s a good choice since only an experienced diplomat of Wang’s stature and authority can stabilise the situation and shore up the work at the foreign ministry at a critical moment like this,” Zhu said.
As the party’s foreign affairs chief, Wang is already China’s No 1 diplomat, and was foreign minister for nearly a decade before Qin succeeded him in December.
Qin’s downfall would be an embarrassment for Xi Jinping if serious problems were found, Zhu said, as he was “widely believed to be a favourite and protégé” of the Chinese president.
“So to maintain domestic stability and avoid tarnishing Xi’s image, the party is likely to aim for a soft landing for Qin and minimise the fallout of the case.”
02:49
Big political questions linger after China abruptly replaces its foreign minister
Wang Xiangwei, a veteran China watcher who now teaches journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Beijing’s handling of the matter so far could mean a final decision had yet to be made about Qin.
“[It seems] Xi has not yet come to a decision on how to handle Qin,” Wang said. “The most likely scenario is they are still looking into the case and are not done with it.”
However, he said the damage to China’s image had already been done.
“From the perspective of communication, I think the government’s handling of Qin’s disappearance is very problematic from the public standpoint. In the era of internet and social media, you only let rumours grow when you don’t give explanations,” Wang, who is also an adviser to the Post, said.
Unexplained absence for over a month was “counterproductive and ridiculous”, he said.
Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, agreed, saying Beijing’s handling of the matter “exposed a sort of indecisiveness and a lack of foresight” that had damaged its reputation.
It also seemed to indicate some health issue that could not be declared, or “misdemeanours … of a nature which is embarrassing to the government”, Brown said.
“I think we’re probably looking at something not particularly major, but embarrassing because one thing we know about the Xi Jinping leadership is they really love ‘face’. If it’s about protecting their face, they will do the most incredible things. And I think we see them doing that in this case.”
Once a rising star who was hand-picked by Xi to head the foreign ministry just 17 months after being sent to Washington as ambassador, Qin was a highly visible face of the country.
His removal was “a major setback for the Chinese leadership’s plan for a transition to a younger generation”, Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, said.
Also, given the claimed efforts going into screening candidates and background checks, his removal in just seven months “indicates something went wrong and doesn’t reflect well [on the party]”, Yang said.
Letting Qin keep his title of state councillor might be out of concern about further shocking the public as well as party officials, given that more questions would arise if he was also stripped of this role without an explanation, Yang said.
Neil Thomas, a fellow in Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Centre for China Analysis, said the opacity of the Chinese political system made it difficult to interpret any political signals.
“The biggest impact of Qin’s absence is likely to be a further erosion of international confidence in China’s political system and diplomatic messaging.”