Foreign Affairs: The mystery of China’s missing Foreign Minister and the Phoenix Journo

Fu Xiaotian (left) and Qin Gang, in Guangzhou, 2022

China’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Qin Gang has been missing for a month or more and we’re told it was due to “health reasons”. Then it was due to something else, but we’re not sure what. The rumours are that he’d had a relationship with Phoenix TV journo, Fu Xiaotian (傅晓田) and that they’d had a baby together. Oookay. 

I don’t know what the truth is. Nobody does, except for the senior leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. 

Here’s my advice to them, to China’s Politburo and to President Xi Jinping. Assuming the Foreign, Domestic, Family Affair is what’s happened, that Qin and Fu got it on, and even had a child together: tell the truth. Lay it out, have him make a mea culpa, if you wish. But in any case, tell the truth. It will save time and angst. And will do wonders to the soft power diplomacy that China claims to care for. 

Just tell the truth, for goodness sake!

Because, end of the day, who cares? I don’t. Most people don’t. They had an affair. Get over it. 

Rumors swirl as suspicions deepen over 'missing' China FM Qin Gang. Hong Kong Standard

South China Morning Post video here. 

ADDED: Thanks to an Occasional Reader, link to a Video of Fu Xiaotian opening a garden at Churchill College Cambridge in her name, the "Xiaotian Fu Garden”. What does it take to get to be able to name a garden in your name at Cambridge? Mmmm....