Official Reveals for the First Time the “Reason” for Qin Gang’s Resignation from National People’s Congress Representative

After the third plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an announcement in the bulletin of the CCP National People’s Congress on the 19th stated that former State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang has resigned from his position as a member of the National People’s Congress due to “personal reasons.” The Tianjin Municipal People’s Congress had previously announced on February 22nd that they had accepted Qin Gang’s resignation. This is the first official disclosure that Qin Gang resigned for “personal reasons”.

The CCP National People’s Congress released a bulletin on the 19th mentioning the dismissal or resignation reasons of several National People’s Congress deputies. Among them, Qin Gang, a National People’s Congress deputy elected from Tianjin and former State Councilor and Foreign Minister, resigned from his position as a National People’s Congress deputy “due to personal reasons as proposed by himself”.

The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP concluded on July 18th, and the official bulletin mentioned the acceptance of Qin Gang’s resignation application, relieving him of his position as a Central Committee member, but still referring to him as a “comrade”. This has been widely interpreted as Qin Gang’s “soft landing”.

Qin Gang, aged 58 and born in Tianjin, was one of the high-ranking officials promoted by Xi Jinping himself. He has previously served as a spokesperson for the CCP Foreign Ministry, Minister Plenipotentiary to the UK, Director-General of the Information Department, Director-General of the Protocol Department, and was promoted to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2018. Qin Gang became the ambassador to the United States in July 2021 and was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of December 2022. However, he served as Foreign Minister for less than three months before being promoted to State Councilor, advancing to the deputy national level and becoming the youngest “party and state leader” of the CCP at that time.

However, just within a few short months, Qin Gang’s career took a major turn. After his last public appearance on June 25th last year, he disappeared from the public eye. By the end of July, he was relieved of his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Three months later, Qin Gang was relieved of his duties as a State Councilor.

In February of this year, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the CCP announced Qin Gang’s “resignation” from his position as a National People’s Congress deputy, without specifying the reasons.

Regarding the reasons for Qin Gang’s downfall, overseas reports have suggested that he was involved in extramarital affairs, having a child with Phoenix TV anchor Fu Xiaotian from Hong Kong. There are also accusations of involvement in leaking information, although no official confirmation has been received.

It has also been rumored that Qin Gang’s downfall is related to internal strife within the Foreign Ministry. The Washington Post revealed in February that through US officials, it was understood that Qin Gang and the current top CCP diplomat, Wang Yi, have a deep-seated rivalry.

On the 19th, the CCP Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress announced the termination of the qualifications of National People’s Congress deputies, including Qin Gang and 10 others: Wang Yixin, Sun Biao, Hu Jianwen, Lei Dongzhu, Zhu Hong, An Jiuxiong, Li Zhizhong, Huang Jiawu, Feng Jiehong, and Lu Weiwei. Among them, Huang Jiawu, Feng Jiehong, Lu Weiwei, and Qin Gang all “resigned”, while the rest were dismissed.

Notably, former Deputy Commander of the Central Theater Command of the military, Li Zhizhong, was “dismissed for serious disciplinary violations”. Feng Jiehong, former Chairman of the Aerospace Sanjiang Group Co., Ltd., a military-industrial enterprise, along with Qin Gang, resigned “due to personal reasons as proposed by themselves”.