After China’s chief, Xi Jinping, catapulted Qin Gang into the put up of international minister in December, Mr. Qin set a frantic tempo, assembly dozens of international officers as he pressed Beijing’s agenda in a divided, war-stricken world.

Then Mr. Qin went silent.

As of Monday, he had not made a public look in three weeks. His final reported engagements had been on June 25, when he held talks with diplomats from Vietnam, Russia and Sri Lanka. He was not too long ago scheduled to fulfill the international coverage chief of the European Union in Beijing, however China canceled that go to. Last week, he missed a gathering of Southeast Asian nations in Jakarta, Indonesia, to which China was invited.

Outside China, Mr. Qin’s prolonged absence has set off hypothesis on the web about his well being and standing. Abrupt disappearances of senior Chinese officers from public life are sometimes seen as potential indicators of bother. The thriller has seeped into conversations amongst diplomats and political insiders within the Chinese capital.

The Chinese authorities acknowledged final week that Mr. Qin, 57, would skip the Jakarta assembly, citing well being causes, nevertheless it has in any other case declined to present any particulars or updates. In Beijing, reporters have repeatedly requested the international ministry, together with on Monday, questions corresponding to when Mr. Qin would return to work, solely to be informed that officers had “no information” to supply.

The secrecy on the a part of the federal government has solely fueled the hypothesis over Mr. Qin’s absence, threatening to distract from China’s efforts to energy up its diplomacy to ease tensions with Western powers and courtroom Asian neighbors.

The episode “is embarrassing and unsettling to Chinese diplomats because of the uncertainty it injects in a system that is tightly controlled,” mentioned Daniel R. Russel, a former senior American diplomat now on the Asia Society Policy Institute. “For foreign diplomats it raises even more questions about the bureaucratic weight of China’s foreign ministry.”

Secrecy across the private lives and well being of senior officers is ingrained within the Chinese Communist Party. In one of many extra notable, and nonetheless unexplained, absences in current occasions, Mr. Xi abruptly disappeared from public view for 2 weeks shortly earlier than taking energy in 2012, lacking a gathering with the then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

It stays fairly believable that Mr. Qin fell in poor health and is recovering. Even so, the episode could be a telling instance of how the celebration’s aversion to sharing unhealthy news can undermine its efforts to regulate the narrative.

“Secrecy is the chosen mode of operation because for the Chinese Communist Party, information is a weapon,” mentioned Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a senior fellow on the Jamestown Foundation, a analysis institute in Washington.

“But in this case, the mystery surrounding such an important official — foreign minister — is mind-boggling,” he mentioned.

Should it prove that Mr. Qin in some way ran afoul of the Communist Party’s management, it might additionally replicate poorly on Mr. Xi, who has used his dominance to fast-track the rise of Mr. Qin and a cohort of different loyalist officers, Mr. Lam mentioned.

“Qin Gang was an official who, we like to say, took a helicopter ride to the top,” Mr. Lam mentioned.

Mr. Qin was appointed China’s ambassador to Washington in July 2021, and after solely 17 months was promoted to international minister, a speedy ascent that marked him out as one among Mr. Xi’s trusted lieutenants.

Before that, Mr. Qin served as a international ministry spokesman — recognized for his acerbic barbs — and as a senior protocol officer who organized Chinese leaders’ journeys overseas, a task that gave Mr. Qin an opportunity to work intently with Mr. Xi.

As international minister, Mr. Qin has been chargeable for implementing the Chinese chief’s imaginative and prescient of Beijing as an more and more assured world energy. In June, he met for 5 and a half hours with the Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, throughout the American official’s go to to Beijing, as the 2 nations sought to ease tensions.

Then Mr. Qin skipped the Southeast Asian assembly final week, with China sending Wang Yi, an official who ranks above Mr. Qin within the celebration hierarchy, in his place.

As questions have mounted over Mr. Qin’s prolonged absence, abroad Chinese commentators have supplied theories that an affair with a tv character is perhaps behind his issues, and the hypothesis has develop into huge news in Taiwan.

Asked concerning the rumors on Monday, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese international ministry, mentioned: “I have no understanding of the matter that you’ve raised.”

Despite Beijing’s reticence, hypothesis can be spreading amongst Chinese officers, mentioned Deng Yuwen, a former editor for a Communist Party newspaper who’s now a present affairs commentator within the United States. Those officers shall be watching to see if Mr. Qin re-emerges or if Beijing offers extra particulars about him, Mr. Deng mentioned.

“Even if he has a health problem, they could find some way to bring him back out, but they haven’t yet,” Mr. Deng mentioned. “If the outside world is speculating about Qin Gang, then naturally a lot of people inside the system are wondering too.”

Keith Bradsher and Olivia Wang contributed reporting.