Mystery surrounding China’s former foreign minister’s disappearance continues as authorities shy away

London: China’s youngest foreign minister has been replaced after he has disappeared from public life for over a month.

Qin Gang spent nearly half a year in the role after he took over the position in December 2022 meant for a five-year tenure, Reuters reported.

Last week China’s legislature held a meeting to remove Qin Gang and afterwards his photos and mentions began disappearing from ministry’s website.

The 57-year-old who rose to prominence through party ranks suddenly has become a non-entity in the nation.

Strange it might seem that the website does not feature any details on him in the list of ‘former ministers’.

A search will yield nothing more than "Sorry, Qin Gang is not found.", adding to the mystery surrounding his disappearance.

Weeks ago when his disappearance was first shot up, the foreign ministry's brief explanation attributed it to his health reasons, which official transcripts later removed

Qin Gang’s meteoric rise was attributed to President Xi Jinping, now fingers are pointed to him after the young leader’s disappearance too.

When replacing Qin with veteran diplomat Wang Yi, Chinese authorities gave no reason for the change.

As the conversations surrounding Qin’s disappearance continue, China’s Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Thursday assured that information regarding it will be released in a timely manner.

Ian Johnson, who is a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, reportedly said that ‘The truth will eventually come out’.

Ian Johnson further said that it will sometimes take months or years, adding that ‘but the way he was dismissed makes it unlikely that it was for health reasons.’

Beijing-based political analyst Wu Qiang also ruled out health as the reason for Qin’s vanishing from public life, adding that if it were the case a deputy could fill in for him rather than removing him.