As a former ambassador to Washington, D.C. and considered a protégé of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Chen, 57, was expected to play a key role in a series of high-profile visits by US officials. But according to the Guardian, the Chinese minister has not appeared in public since June 25, when he met in the Chinese capital with authorities from Sri Lanka, Russia and Vietnam.
His last high-profile public appearance was in June, when he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing. Chen was due to meet EU diplomat Josep Borrell this month in Beijing, but he postponed the meeting without providing an explanation. Chen Gang, one of the faces of the new generation of Chinese diplomats known as the “wolf warriors,” also failed to join Chinese officials in talks with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in early July or on a visit by climate envoy John Kelly.
Last week, Chen was replaced as the head of the Beijing delegation to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Indonesia. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at the time that Chen would not go for “health reasons”. This justification is not found in the official transcript of the regular press conference with the spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, which was later posted on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The agency frequently excludes content it deems sensitive from daily conference transcripts.
After a week, she did not appear again. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she had “no information” on when Chen would return to the post.
The discussion about the minister’s absence appears to have been censored on Chinese social network Weibo. Journalist and analyst Phil Cunningham also complained about the undisclosed cut of five paragraphs on Chen in an article he wrote on US-China relations for the pro-Beijing South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
China’s opaque political system makes it difficult to determine the cause of the sudden disappearance of senior officials. Often, the authorities announce that the person is under investigation or has been punished. But there are also benign cases: Xi Jinping himself disappeared for two weeks shortly before he was chosen as China’s leader in 2012, before reappearing to take office. The reason for the disappearance has not been disclosed.
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