“What we do know is that this should be a very important moment for Qin Gang, given his background and knowledge of the West, when there are all of these high-level meetings going on,” van der Putten added. Qin was scheduled to meet European Union Foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell on July the 4th but the meeting was cancelled with no further explanations. It was a well-known fact that Gang, aged 57, was Xi’s top-notch aide and “aggressive” diplomacy was much favoured. A native of Tianjin he mostly served with foreign affairs and 11th Chinese Ambassador in the United States till January this year and handled the Chinese spy balloon assiduously. “He has been outspoken in saying things that are very, very nationalistic, standing up for China’s interests and criticizing the Western approach,” said van der Putten, the Netherlands-based China expert.

Source: Mint July 20, 2023 11:39 UTC