In an age when other countries’ leaders drop indiscretions on social media or in interviews, China’s ruling classes heed codes of silence that would be familiar to Communist Party cadres of the 1950s
the ill-explained, weeks-long disappearance of China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, will come to an end. Quite possibly Mr Qin—a suavely confident diplomat of the iron-fist and velvet-glove type, rocket-propelled to high office by a spell as an aide to President Xi Jinping—will quietly resume his duties, just as suddenly as he stopped work after a day of meetings on June 25th. Perhaps he will explain the undefined health issues that remain the only official reason for his absence.
However this episode ends, it is a reminder that China’s capital, for all its Tesla showrooms and Apple stores and outward marks of globalised modernity, remains a tough place. It is a city of secrets and rumours. Grandees do sometimes vanish, before reappearing to face charges of corruption, immorality or dissent. . As Beijing is pounded by a heatwave, Chinese elites and foreign ambassadors huddle in embassy gardens and drawing rooms to exchange theories about Mr Qin.
Even with the mystery unresolved, a few lessons may be drawn about how power is wielded in China. Some are simple. If Mr Qin really is unwell, a formal statement about his health would help calm the rumour mills. But physical infirmity is a political taboo. This goes beyond a preference for privacy. Leaders are expected to be vigorous. Any sign of frailty is risky: party gatherings are a sea of dyed black hair.
Other lessons about Chinese power are less simple. Take Mr Qin’s job as foreign minister. That is one reason why his disappearance matters, but not the most significant. Chinese job titles map poorly onto those used elsewhere. Foreign ministers are outranked by the head of the party’s Foreign Affairs Commission: a post held by Wang Yi, who is China’s top diplomat.
As a result, Mr Qin’s rapid rise should offer clues about Mr Xi’s worldview, or at least about the sort of diplomacy that he values. The foreign minister is sometimes called a “wolf warrior”, but that is misleading. Some Chinese diplomats deserve that tag, which comes from a jingoistic Chinese action film. Truly wolfish envoys are often crudely anti-Western.
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
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