China removes its outspoken foreign minister during a bumpy time in relations with the US

BEIJING -- China removed its sometimes outspoken foreign minister Tuesday and replaced him with his predecessor at an unusually scheduled meeting, a move that has fueled rumors about the personal lives and political rivalries of China's Communist Party elite.

The step to remove Qin Gang after less than a year and replace him with Wang Yi doesn't appear to signal any significant change in the hard-edged foreign policy adopted in recent years by leader Xi Jinping, who oversees the world's second-largest economy -- and a nation that is the primary U.S. rival for international influence. U.S. officials said as much about Qin's departure after learning of the move.

In its announcement on the national evening news, state broadcaster CCTV gave no reason for Qin's removal. Within minutes, all mentions and photos of him had been removed from the Foreign Ministry's website. However, he was still referred to on the central government's main site as a Cabinet-level state councilor, a possible sign his political career wasn't entirely over.

He had disappeared from public view almost a month ago, and the Foreign Ministry has provided no information about his status. That is in keeping with the ruling Communist Party's standard approach to personnel matters within a highly opaque political system where the media and free speech are severely restricted. The party rarely reveals its process or its way of thinking when it makes a move such as this.

The ministry made no comment at its daily briefing Tuesday.

The move comes amid a foreign backlash against China's increasingly aggressive foreign policy, of which Qin was a chief proponent. That now includes Chinese political and economic support for Russia in its war on Ukraine, the signing of a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands that could give it a military foothold in the South Pacific and the rejection of demands for more information about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that began in China in late 2019.

How this might affect US-China relations

The U.S. has launched a flurry of diplomacy with China over recent weeks in hopes of reviving relations that have sunk to a historic low. In Washington on Tuesday, two U.S. officials said they do not believe Qin's ouster will have a significant impact.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the Biden administration's internal thinking, said the move would not affect any U.S. desire or intent to promote high-level dialogue with the Chinese.

That has most recently been reflected in visits to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry. Blinken was the last U.S. official to meet Qin in his role as foreign minister, but all three officials met with Wang, who is a relatively known quantity in Washington.

Kerry met with officials, including Premier Li Qiang last week, following up on visits by Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Centenarian former top diplomat Henry Kissinger, revered in China for helping break the ice in relations in the early 1970s, also made trip and was granted a sit-down with Xi.

"We are working to put some stability into the relationship," Blinken said in an interview with CNN broadcast Sunday.

China has an opaque political system abetted by strict controls over the media and civil society, making it difficult to gauge how Chinese leaders see the relationship at this point.

Xi is the most authoritarian and nationalistic party head in decades and has taken a hard line on claims to sovereignty over the South China Sea and threatened to attack the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan. He rejects foreign criticism of China's crackdown on political and cultural expression against Muslim and Buddhist minorities and in the former British colony of Hong Kong.

Qin's rhetoric was sometimes unrestrained

During his time as spokesman and minister, Qin defended those positions in terms that sometimes verged on the strident, saying in March that, "If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there surely will be conflict and confrontation."

"Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity," Qin said.

However, a window of opportunity remains open, particularly if Xi makes a state visit to the U.S. later this year, when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in San Francisco, said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Beijing's Renmin University.

"If the window of opportunity could be grasped to pull China-U.S. relations back on track, the relations might not spin out of control next year," when the U.S. will mainly focused on the election season, Wang said.

Conflicts have sometimes overshadowed the massive economic and trade relationship, but the sides can still work together on relatively politically neutral issues such as climate change, Wang said.

Both countries are seeking for a way to manage ""the most important and complicated bilateral relations in the world," said Zhu Feng, dean of the School of International Studies at prestigious Nanjing University in eastern China.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.