WASHINGTON
\nChina\u2019s decision to reappoint its top diplomat Wang Yi as foreign minister one month after former rising star Qin Gang disappeared from public view means Washington will be dealing with a familiar face in its bid to steady relations with its main strategic rival.
\nBut Wang\u2019s return to a post he held for most of the past decade is unlikely to alter the trajectory of a troubled bilateral relationship or dispel concerns about the opaque workings of President Xi Jinping\u2019s government.
\nThe removal of Qin, reputedly a Xi protege, on Tuesday came barely half a year after he assumed the role. The 57-year-old former ambassador to the United States and Xi aide took over the ministry in December but has not been seen in public since June 25 when he met visiting diplomats in Beijing.
\nThe ministry has said he was off work for health reasons but has given no details.
\nWang, known in Washington for his sharp intellect and his sometimes aggressive defense of China\u2019s positions, has been a fixture in US-China relations for years.
\nWashington-based analysts say Wang\u2019s return to the ministry should help China\u2019s foreign ministry resume normal operations after weeks of international speculation about Qin\u2019s fate.
\nBut it is unlikely to yield any major improvement in tense US-China relations, which have hit their lowest point in decades.
\n\u201cNone of this changes the structural reasons for friction in the relationship,\u201d said Joseph Torigian, an expert on China\u2019s Communist leaders at American University in Washington.
\nChina\u2019s embassy in Washington did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
\nAt a briefing on Tuesday US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said it was up to China to choose its foreign minister and Blinken had met Wang multiple times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON China\u2019s decision to reappoint its top diplomat Wang Yi as foreign minister one month after former rising star Qin Gang disappeared from public view means Washington will be dealing with a familiar face in its bid to steady relations with its main strategic rival. But Wang\u2019s return to a post he held for most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n