ISLAMABAD
\nChina said on Thursday it opposed \u201cmalicious hype\u201d concerning this week\u2019s removal of foreign minister Qin Gang, as it continued to avoid questions about the senior diplomat\u2019s disappearance.
\nQin, a former ambassador to the United States and confidant of President Xi Jinping, was removed from his position on Tuesday.
\nAsked on Thursday about whether she believed Beijing\u2019s foreign ministry had been transparent about Qin\u2019s removal from office, spokeswoman Mao Ning insisted China has released information about recent personnel changes \u201cin a timely manner\u201d.
\n\u201cWe consistently oppose malicious hype of this matter,\u201d she said.
\nQin was removed from office by Beijing\u2019s top lawmaking body after just 207 days on the job, following weeks of speculation that he had fallen out of favour.
\nHe has been replaced by Wang Yi, a veteran diplomat who served as foreign minister before Qin and who outranked him in the Chinese government hierarchy.
\nBeijing has offered no explanation for Qin\u2019s dismissal, nor why he has not been seen in public for more than a month.
\n\u201cWhat I can tell you is that China\u2019s diplomatic work has always been carried out under the centralised and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee,\u201d Mao said on Thursday.
\nQin has been scrubbed from the foreign ministry\u2019s website, with searches for his name yielding no results.
\n\u201cThe foreign ministry website will be updated in a timely manner in accordance with relevant management regulations,\u201d Mao said. \u201cPlease have a look after the website is updated, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD China said on Thursday it opposed \u201cmalicious hype\u201d concerning this week\u2019s removal of foreign minister Qin Gang, as it continued to avoid questions about the senior diplomat\u2019s disappearance. Qin, a former ambassador to the United States and confidant of President Xi Jinping, was removed from his position on Tuesday. Asked on Thursday about whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n