China appoints its US envoy Qin Gang as the new foreign minister

President Xi Jinping's longtime assistant Qin Gang was named as China's next foreign minister on Friday.

Wang Yi, China's former foreign minister for the previous ten years, is replaced by Qin Gang who served as ambassador to the United States.

In October, Wang Yi, 69, was elevated to the Chinese Communist Party's politburo and is anticipated to take on a larger role in foreign affairs.


Qin Gang, a rising star in China’s foreign ministry, had a number of jobs before being posted to the Chinese embassy in Britain and serving as the ministry's spokesman. Between 2014 and 2018, he was Xi's main protocol officer.

Qin Gang reaffirmed that China-U.S. ties were not a zero-sum game in an editorial that was published this week in the bimonthly American journal the National Interest. Qin Gang also provided an outline of China's foreign policy perspective. He has brought the growing tensions between the two biggest economies in the world into light in the US, despite recent attempts by their presidents to resume diplomatic relations.



During the discussion, US President Joe Biden made it clear that the US thought China was endangering regional peace and security as well as the economy of the whole world by taking coercive and more hostile moves against Taiwan.

According to the US State Department, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Wang Yi spoke on the need of keeping lines of communication open and managing the People's Republic of China relationship appropriately. Additionally, they expressed "concerns" about Russia's conflict with Ukraine and the dangers it poses to international security and financial stability.

FAQs:

1. Qin is returning from Beijing from Washington after how many months?
   17 Months
2. Who was China's former foreign minister?
   Wang Yi