High-ranking Chinese officials and businessmen are good at karaoke. What happens there, stays there. But Foreign Minister Qin Gang had to display refinement, even putting his sense of risk – and his marriage – to the test before disappearing in battle. Dismissed in July without explanation, all indications are that Qin was smitten with a sensational presenter, Fu Xiaotian – seventeen years younger – during his time as China’s ambassador in Washington. The one who provides the evidence of charge, by allusions, is the interested party herself, on social networks. In his last tweet he measured the words and the photos – where Qin’s nape comes out – like someone who leaves breadcrumbs to save his life. All this, just before disappearing, with a baby on board, on a jet bound for Beijing. Nothing has been heard from him again.
The Anglo-Saxon press has not yet decided whether Er-Kin (as Fu calls him, in another nod to Qin) is a natural child or a surrogate child of another woman, a rather wild hypothesis. What he does not doubt, using sources he does not reveal, is that the two were lovers. Not necessarily since they met ten years ago, in London or Beijing, when Xiaotian was already working for the official Phoenix channel.
Both met again in the United States, when they had already advanced professionally. He as ambassador to the first power and Fu as presenter of his own program, Conversations with world leaders.
Fu Xiaotian’s last interview published on his X account – when it was still Twitter – is with the executive chairman of Pfizer, Albert Bourla. But the last thing he did, and which has generated the most morbidness in the networks, is his hand in hand with Qin. In this interview, he, even though he was already on the verge of becoming head of Chinese diplomacy, looks like a lamb in front of the owner and lady of the dialogue. The game of looks did not go unnoticed by millions of people. Not in Beijing either.
After weeks of uncertainty, the dismissal of the former protégé of Xi Jinping was announced in July with a sentence. It did not clarify anything and nothing new has transpired, so the Qin Gang vaudeville continues without closure. And it is not clear if the moralizing effort that President Xi arrogates is limited to the private sphere or to the rationale of the State.
Likewise, Fu’s life, beyond journalism, has given rise to speculation. Fueled by a donation to his former university in Cambridge, as early as 2016 – on condition that his name appeared – of 250,000 pounds, according to the Financial Times. The origin of his fortune is not known, nor if he spied or was spied on.
Beijing has not said a word about it, but at the same time it is sharpening its caution. Three weeks ago, the Chinese Government banned the use of iPhones for all its officials, and caused the multinational company’s share price to fall. Not surprisingly, the Chinese Communist Party claims to have 98 million members. Likewise, last week, party leaders met with officials from dozens of public companies to warn them about “compromised security” and industrial espionage, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The People’s Liberation Army has gone one step further, warning its ranks to watch who they go with. Associating with unrecommended people is what would have led to the removal of some leaders.
Because Qin Gang is not alone in his ostracism. Almost simultaneously, a senior official of the missile program – whose son was studying in the United States – was also relieved without explanation.
Although the most deafening silence hangs over Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who has been absent from the public scene since the end of August, as the US ambassador pointed out. In this case, it points to corruption in acquisitions.
“The social circle must be purified”, preaches the army newspaper. A rhetorical Maoism that today, fortunately, only oozes ink.
The veteran diplomat Wang Yi will have taken just seven months to return to the head of Foreign Affairs, replacing the interviewed and interviewed Qin Gang.
