China suddenly lifted Qin Gang's post of Foreign Minister, and failed to stop the problem that the outside world had persisted to Chinese officials for a month that disappeared from the public view for a month: Where is Qin Gangren?Does he have a health problem?Is he under investigation?

Under the questioning of the reporters, the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have always flashed their words and repeatedly stated that they did not provide information they could provide.After Qin Gang was removed from office on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's website deleted almost all the contents of Qin Gang. This unusual approach further triggered people's curiosity.On Thursday, after a reporter asked whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was transparent in Qin Gang's dismissal, the spokesman severely rebuked his so -called malicious speculation.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for communicating with the outside world. The struggle of the department's disappearance of its supreme officials highlights the weakness of Chinese diplomatic institutions under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.Xi Jinping is the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong. He concentrated his power in his own hands and strengthened a degree of confidentiality of a highly opaque system, no matter what price it brought to China's international image.

Analysts say that as Xi Jinping pursues the foreign policy that is increasingly confident (some people call adventure), he has weakened the power of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

More widely, most of the time during the Xi Jinping era, the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lost its ability to affect foreign policy.Strategic and International Research Center Fee and Chinese Research Project Director Jude Blanchette said.

China -US bilateral relations have fallen to the lowest point in decades in Xi Jinping's leadership.He has been aggressively emphasized China's sovereignty on autonomous islands Taiwan, and continued to firmly support Russia in the face of extensive criticism of the outside world, although Russia invaded Ukraine.

The outside world believes that Qin Gang's rapid promotion is related to Xi Jinping. He allowed Qin Gang to cross more experienced diplomats. Only 17 months after serving as the Chinese ambassador to the United States, he was appointed Foreign Minister at the end of last year.

The basic parameters of China's foreign policy are quite fixed, and a personnel change, especially Qin Gang's changes, will not change the policy direction, Bai Ming said.Qin Gang is not Kissinger.

Qin Gang's exemption situation is extremely weird on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the words of the Foreign Minister's page are only the words the information update in the information update.

However, on Friday, some of the text mentioned by Qin Gang began to reappear on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including his recently reported event, which was June 25, when he held a diplomat with Vietnam, Russia and Sri Lanka.talks.But searching his name still has no results.

Even if it is only temporary, this method of erasing everything makes people think of the Mao Zedong era, and the political opponents of that era will disappear from the photos and official documents.This also implies that Qin Gang unexpectedly offended the CCP's leadership instead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as asked about why Qin Gang did not participate in the Southeast Asian National Foreign Minister's meeting held in Indonesia in Indonesia.Essence

At a regular press conference held in Beijing on Wednesday, the spokesman Mao Ning appeared to be poor again, and he could not give the answer to the at least 20 questions about Qin Gang raised by the reporter.

Mao Ning repeatedly asked reporters who wanted to know more information to check the reports of Chinese official media. When a reporter was surprised by her insistence on her insistence, Mao Ning smiled.

The official record of the press conference went to all the issues of Qin Gang, adding Owel -style colors to this dispute.

All problems are covered up!A Weibo user commented on the video of a routine press conference.

As a spokesman, she couldn't say anything, and another user pointed out.

These busy response reflected the difficulties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a certain extent. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for explaining and implementing the extensive goals and sudden imaginations of the CCP's leadership, but it does not necessarily understand what the leadership thinks.

Sometimes the information from the leadership is clear.In recent years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has adopted an aggressive approach called the wolf diplomacy, which reflects the leader's style of governing the country. Xi Jinping requires that China has a more confident performance on the global stage.

At other times, Chinese diplomats had to guess the leaders' thoughts.Joseph Torigian, an assistant professor of Chinese elite politics at the University of America in Washington, tells the story that a party historian tells him: In the 1980s, an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was required to write a report to analyze whether China should repair it.Relationship with the Soviet Union.This person submitted two opposite reports because he did not know which position of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping at the time.

The entire game is to do as closely as possible in accordance with the requirements of the leader, Tang Zhi said.In this sense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has always been a department for implementing policies, not a department that carefully considers the policy.

Qin Gang's position has been replaced by his former Wang Yi.Senior diplomat, Wang Yi, has met with senior foreign officials in the past few weeks, including John Middot, a special envoy of President Bayeng's climate change; Kerry and EU's highest diplomat Hedotot; Berrey Middot; Torrez.

Wang Yi is a member of the Politburo consisting of 24 Chinese Supreme Officials. He should have more opportunities to contact Xi Jinping than the previous Foreign Minister, but this does not guarantee that he has a greater influence on policy formulation.

Whether Wang Yi is just a temporary replacement remains to be observed. This is another question of Mao Ning's refusal to disclose more information.But he returned to its original position at the time of global affairs than ever.The core of this effort is Xi Jinping, not Chinese diplomats.

Wang Yi visited South Africa and Turkey this week. During his visit, he called on the south of the world to resist Western hegemony and strengthen cooperation.

Xi Jinping sought to reshape the world order and proposed a set of global initiatives around development, national security and culture to replace the rules -based order advocated by the United States after the Second World War.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, it is really difficult to show major victory, Tang Zhi said.Therefore, one thing that allows Xi Jinping to focus on is to enhance his politician image.

Olivia Wang has contributed to this article.

David Pierson is responsible for reporting Chinese foreign policy and economic and cultural exchanges between China and the world.Welcome to learn more.

Translation: New York Times Chinese website