The just sacked Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang must have gone through strict background checks when he was tapped for the promotion late last year. As recently as March, he was still seen as a solid pick. What changed?
Qin's mysterious disappearance could be related to two issues: the handling of relations with the U.S. and his lack of experience in taking on such an important responsibility.
If one tracks the developments leading up to Qin's dismissal, things begin to take shape.
On June 19, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but under humiliating seating arrangements.
The next day while on the campaign trail, U.S. President Joe Biden called Xi a "dictator." It was likely a swift counterpunch against China for treating the U.S. delegation as if it were a tributary state.
China wants the narrative to be that Xi is attending November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco at the earnest request of the Americans, not because China is eager to be there. Thus the bold seating arrangements.
For China, Biden's "dictator" remark could not have come at a worse time. Beijing could not flip the table over and go on a rampage, so to speak, without making the Blinken visit look like a total failure.
China is frustrated that it cannot properly control and manage its relations with the U.S.
Who is to blame? Nobody. But in China's hierarchy, somebody has to take responsibility.
Read this week's China Up Close by Katsuji Nakazawa here.
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