• China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reportedly declined to answer questions surrounding the disappearance and dismissal of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who has not been seen publicly for over a month and was removed from office on Tuesday. Guardian (LR: 2 CP: 5)
• The 57-year-old had previously been one of the youngest appointees into the position in PRC history. An announcement was made after an emergency meeting that Wang Yi — Qin's predecessor — was reappointed to the post of foreign minister. BBC News
• On June 25, before a meeting with southeast Asian countries, the foreign minister noted Qin's absence for "health reasons," and has since refused to elaborate. Qin was appointed last year, shortly after Pres. Xi Jinping's third term began. FT
• Wang had become China's top diplomat as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Foreign Affairs Commission, outranking Qin within China's government hierarchy. The 69-year-old will now hold both positions. Al Jazeera (LR: 2 CP: 1)
• Married with a son, Qin had previously called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and visited various states in Europe and Africa. In a 2022 interview, Qin affirmed that China-US relations did not have to be prefaced with one state gaining at the expense of the other. Reuters
• Over 20 questions concerning Qin were not answered by foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Wednesday, who rather reaffirmed that "China's diplomacy has been making progress and moving forward in an orderly manner." Questions concerning Qin were then removed from the published record of the briefing. Independent (LR: 2 CP: 3)

Pro-China narrative:

• There is too much malevolent meddling and probing into internal PRC politics by Western media outlets. It's certainly possible that, given the current state of US-China relations, Xi Jinping merely believed that greater experience was needed for such an important position.
  Nikkei Asia

Anti-China narrative:

• A lack of explanation for Qin’s disappearance only intensifies the current perception that Chinese politics is shrouded in mystery and danger. Control of Chinese politics by a singular party has gone too far. All those in China are dispensable if they fail to please the top leader.
  The Asahi Shimbun