Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was kicked out of office on Tuesday, weeks after he mysteriously vanished from public view. The situation has sparked speculation about Qin's fate.  

Beijing said Qin's predecessor, Wang Yi, who is currently head of the Communist Party's foreign affairs commission, will take over as foreign minister.

There has been little official explanation so far for Qin's absence. His removal likely marks the end of the political career of one of the most prominent figures in the Chinese leadership.

A tough-talking diplomat

Originally from the northeastern city of Tianjin, Qin spent his entire career in China's diplomatic service.

He was one of the earliest Chinese diplomats to make sharp comments in defense of Beijing's increasingly assertive foreign policy positions.

Qin also became known for his tough talk against the West.

Those remarks earned him the reputation as a "wolf warrior," a nickname given to Chinese diplomats who respond vehemently to Western nations they perceive as hostile.

In 2020, he complained that China's global image had worsened because Western media had never accepted the Chinese political system or its economic rise.

Qin's closeness with Xi

Qin rapidly rose within the Communist Party hierarchy over the past decade.

Analysts say the rise was due to his closeness with President Xi Jinping.

From 2014 to 2017, Qin worked as head of the foreign ministry's diplomatic protocol department. During this stint, he had regular contact with Xi and organized the president's foreign trips.

Qin was viewed as Xi's protégé and appointed as a vice-minister of foreign affairs, a role he held between 2018 and 2021.

Afterward, he was sent to Washington as China's ambassador to the United States, where he gained prominence through public and media appearances in which he stridently defended Chinese geopolitical positions.

Still, as ambassador, he was less confrontational than he had been previously in Beijing. In that role, he was charged with putting the relationship between the world's two largest economies back on track.

Qin's disappearance 'highly troublesome'

Those experiences culminated in Qin's most recent position: In December 2022, at the relatively young age of 57, he became one of the youngest foreign ministers in Chinese history.

Qin also gained entry into the Communist Party's central committee last year.

But since Qin disappeared from public view, the mystery of his whereabouts and fate have sparked fevered speculation both inside and outside the country.

Wu Qiang, an independent academic and political commentator in China, told DW last week that the episode speaks volumes about the current state of Xi's rule.

The abrupt disappearance of Qin "is highly troublesome" since it indicates that Beijing may be moving closer to a "mystical and unpredictable" form of autocratic leadership, he stressed.

Edited by: Shamil Shams