Spy Rumors Swirl in Chinese Foreign Minister’s Absence

Rumors abound of an affair between 'Wolf Warrior' Qin Gang and a TV news star

As has been reported in many outlets, it remains unclear why Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang has not appeared in public since June 25. Officially, he is ill. Unofficially, his purported connection to, including a possible love child with, the famous Phoenix Television host Fu Xiaotian makes the story enticing and has fueled much speculation, including the rumor that Fu was compromised by a foreign intelligence service.

Fu Xiaotian and Qin Gang in quieter times (YouTube)

That he’s been laid low by Illness is plausible but authorities have declined to elaborate. If Qin, 57, had a serious case of COVID it would be embarrassing for the regime, of course, considering that new figures show that the number of deaths in the latest wave of the disease is much higher than claimed by Beijing.

In Qin’s absence, rumors and innuendo threaten to engulf the foreign ministry, not to mention Xi Jinping, Qin’s longtime patron. Reporters have been pestering foreign ministry officials about the case for weeks now. The rumored spy angle has added fuel to the fire. 

Qin came up through the spy ranks himself, not the usual diplomatic schools and services. Indeed, early on he was groomed for a career in the Ministry of State Security’s foreign spy service, according to John J. Tkacik, Jr. a retired U.S. foreign service officer who has served in Taipei and Beijing. Tkacik says Qin graduated from Beijing’s University of International Relations, “a campus well-known for its affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party Center’s intelligence services…So it was to be expected that, upon his graduation, Qin Gang would be assigned to the MSS-run Beijing Diplomatic Services Bureau [DSB], whence he was dispatched to work [under cover] in the Beijing bureau of United Press International.”

Tkacik, now director of the Future Asia Project at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a U.S.-based think tank, said Qin went on to work as a spy under diplomatic cover.

“After a rigorous four-year apprenticeship with foreign news media operations in Beijing, Qin Gang was placed into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under diplomatic cover,” Tkacik continued. “With his journalism background, his ‘diplomatic cover’ was —what else?—as press officer on two assignments to the United Kingdom together with a few stints in the Foreign Ministry press office, where he was in close liaison with the Ministry of State Security’s DSB-supplied informants in all foreign diplomatic public affairs offices and in all foreign media bureaus in Beijing.”

SpyTalk could not independently confirm Tkacik’s timeline for Qin’s career trajectory and MSS affiliation.