China has replaced its foreign minister Qin Gang after he mysteriously disappeared exactly one month ago, Chinese state media said on Tuesday, as cited by Reuters.

Qin, 57, became one of China’s youngest foreign ministers when he was appointed last December. Before that, he held the position of the Chinese ambassador in Washington, joined the new guard of “wolf warriors” in Chinese diplomacy.

He has not appeared in public since June 25, and the ministry he later led said he had taken a leave of absence due to unspecified health conditions.

State media in Beijing announced on Monday that Qing Gang had been replaced as foreign minister by Wang Yi, one of China’s most experienced diplomats and a leading member of the Communist Party.

Wang Yi served as China’s Foreign Minister from March 2013 to December 2022, and was succeeded by Wang Yi.

What happened to the head of Chinese diplomacy?

Qin Gang has not appeared in public since June 25, when he received Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Rudenko in Beijing.

But two weeks later, his absence from the ASEAN summit in Indonesia raised the first question marks. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited “health reasons”.

Talk of Qin’s absence appears to have been censored on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

“This is a topic that everyone pays attention to, but you can’t talk about it publicly. A balance must be found for the smooth functioning of current situations and the general public’s right to know what is going on,” Hu Xinjin, the influential ex-editor-in-chief of the Global Times tabloid and known as a stickler for government lines, wrote on Weibo.

Qin Gang’s absence has created a vacuum at the top of the Foreign Ministry. EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell’s visit to Beijing has been cancelled. The visit of British Foreign Minister James Cleverley was also postponed.

Qin Gang’s atypical disappearance

It is not uncommon for prominent Chinese figures to suddenly disappear from the public eye, only to reappear later without a clear explanation. Even President Xi himself once disappeared for two weeks shortly before taking office in 2012.

But, according to analysts, Tsin’s situation is quite unusual due to his position and the time of his absence.

“As China’s foreign minister, he should make frequent appearances on the international stage, especially at a time when China’s diplomatic schedule is extremely busy,” Deng Yuwen, a former Communist Party newspaper editor who is now a US commentator, told DW.

Beijing’s foreign ministry has already announced that his replacement, Wang Yi, will make several overseas visits before and after the BRICS summit in South Africa next month.