Last year, China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, suddenly disappeared. Qin was a rising star in Chinese politics and a protegé of China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping. In the first episode of our three-part investigation, we chart Qin’s rise and begin to untangle the mystery of his disappearance.

source：The Journal Podcast

10/18/2024 3:55:00 PM

Kate Linebaugh: This is the second episode of The Missing Minister. If you haven't already listened to episode one, we recommend doing that first. After Qin Gang disappeared last year, senior Chinese officials were briefed on what happened. They were told a story, and to understand that story, you have to scroll back to much earlier in Qin's career. Long before Qin was China's foreign minister or even an ambassador, he was a junior diplomat living in London.

Lingling Wei: Qin Gang seemed to really enjoy his life in the UK according to people who know him.

Kate Linebaugh: That's Chief China correspondent Lingling Wei, who you heard in the last episode.

Lingling Wei: Qin Gang moved there with his wife in the mid '90s. In a calling to a friend of hers, they enjoyed exploring the city together. He loved talking about soccer and supported Arsenal Soccer Club.

Speaker 3: Played back for our seven. Two, one. They've turned it around.

Lingling Wei: We know that he loved tennis and went to Wimbledon. And he told an acquaintance that he had vacationed in Cornwall and he had really enjoyed driving around on those twisty and narrow roads.

Kate Linebaugh: Altogether, Qin spent around a decade in the UK. And towards the end of his time there, around 2011, something happened that would play a central role in the story of his disappearance. He met someone, another Chinese professional living in the UK who'd also fallen in love with all things British.

Lingling Wei: He met this very young, beautiful, ambitious Chinese TV journalist, Fu Xiaotian

Fu Xiaotian: (foreign language)

Kate Linebaugh: Back then, Fu was in her late 20s. She was an up-and-coming news reporter at a Chinese-language TV station, covering stories like Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton and the London Olympics.

Queen Elizabeth: I declare open the games of London.

Kate Linebaugh: It was here in London, thousands of miles from home, that Fu and Qin's lives first intersected, and they began an affair. We don't know much about that first phase of their relationship. According to someone close to Fu, it didn't last long. But what started in London didn't end there. Years later, Qin and Fu would resume their affair. That affair would be used against them. And both Qin and Fu would disappear. From The Journal, I'm Kate Linebaugh, and this is The Missing Minister, a three-part investigation into the mysterious disappearance of China's Foreign Minister. Episode two, the affair. Qin Gang disappeared in June of last year, and in the months afterwards, we learned a few things about the events surrounding his disappearance. According to Lingling's sources, senior Chinese officials had been told that Qin had had an affair and that that affair might have compromised China's national security. That phrase can mean a lot of things in China, from serious security breaches to things the party just doesn't like. But what did it mean in this case? Lingling didn't know. So she started looking into the woman Qin had the affair with Fu Xiaotian. FU is missing. We asked China's foreign ministry about her whereabouts and they had no comment. We spoke with several people who knew Fu or worked with her. A couple of her friends told us her phones had been disconnected. None of the people who knew Fu would do an on-the-record interview with us, so you won't hear them. And much about Fu remains hard to pin down, starting with her origins.

Lingling Wei: We have heard conflicting accounts of her family background. She told some friends that she grew up in a very wealthy family in the city of Chongqing. Based on those accounts, her father had very successful business that involved trading raw materials and components for semiconductors. Then there are other accounts, other people who know her, who have told us that she's from a very modest family background. So that's just another layer of mystery about this woman.

Kate Linebaugh: We do know that Fu was academically ambitious. She scored highly enough on China's college entrance exam to attend top universities. And eventually her studies took her to the UK.

Fu Xiaotian: When I first arrived in Cambridge, really was like, well, that the first time I really arrived in Europe, as an Asian girl, young girl. And it really was like a fairy tale world to me, and all the apple trees, the grass and everything. So beautiful. It's amazing.

Kate Linebaugh: That's Fu, in an interview with Cambridge University, where she received her master's degree in 2007. Cambridge made a strong impression on Fu. Years later, she would make a sizable donation to her college there and the college would unveil a garden in her name. It features white wisteria, stones flown in from China, and an apple tree planted by Fu herself. That garden dedication was in 2019. By this time, Fu was well established in her media career. She'd left London and was back in China, still working for the same station, Phoenix TV. It's a news network with ties to China's Communist party. Fu had risen within Phoenix to become the host of its flagship interview show where she talked to global leaders in both Chinese and English.

Fu Xiaotian: Thank you very much for joining us on the Phoenix program, Talk With World Leaders.

Lingling Wei: That was a big step forward for her. It was super competitive working for a TV network. And Talk With World Leaders is one of their prime one-on-one interview programs. The people on the show are often movers and shakers in the world of business and politics.

Kate Linebaugh: Fu interviewed big names and seemed at ease is doing it. She settled into a conversation with Ban-Ki Moon when he was Secretary General by asking him about his accomplishments.

Fu Xiaotian: What is achievement that United Nations has made in the past say, nine years, that makes you feel the most proud of?

Kate Linebaugh: She struck up a rapport with US Secretary of State at the time, John Kerry, quizzing him on trade in the Pacific.

Fu Xiaotian: And thank you very much for bringing up the TPP topic because we understand it is a very important topic.

John Kerry: I'll bring up all your topics.

Kate Linebaugh: Fu also spoke with business and cultural leaders, like NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg. How was Fu as a TV host?

Joe Parkinson: She was known to be, in the Chinese context, a fantastic journalist, and the Diplomatic Corps referred to her as Amanpour, because they reminded her with her position and her style of the CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour.

Kate Linebaugh: That's our colleague, Joe Parkinson. He's been helping us look into Fu's background.

Joe Parkinson: Her shows were followed by a lot of people abroad, and often when Western leaders came into the country, it was Fu that they wanted to be interviewed by. Partly because she was very professional, partly because she was more subtle and nuanced than some of the other anchors at state TV. And partly because they believed that they were going to get a fair shake.

Kate Linebaugh: And Fu wasn't just hobnobbing with powerful people on screen.

Joe Parkinson: She would be at a lot of the parties. She would be a kind of charismatic figure who floated among the diplomats and the journalists and the politicians in Beijing.

Kate Linebaugh: An online video captured one of these events, a launch party for a book Fu had written based on our interviews with world leaders. At the event ambassadors and diplomats mingled, taking turns showering Fu with compliments.

Speaker 8: We are celebrating today a person who is diligent, serious, thoughtful, talented, and graceful.

Kate Linebaugh: The video wraps up with Fu raising a glass alongside her guests as they each come up with a different way to toast her.

Speaker 9: Many congratulations. And I look forward to reading your book.

Speaker 10: Congratulations, and I look forward to seeing you in Maldives.

Speaker 11: Congratulations and for many more successes.

Kate Linebaugh: Fu had connections to high-powered people and she knew how to use them. At Phoenix, our reporting shows that Fu's connection to a Chinese politician played a pivotal role in her rise at the station. And a person who knew Fu in Beijing told Joe that her connections brought other benefits.

Joe Parkinson: Fu loved luxury. She loved private planes. She loved the fine food and the fine wine. In the Chinese context, there is a culture where wealthy people tend to surround people like that and can become benefactors, and she certainly had a kind of constellation of benefactors around her, very wealthy individuals who would pay for her places on these private jets or pay for her to stay in the finest hotels in Italy or elsewhere around Europe. This wasn't just one-way traffic. Part of the reason these people were interested in her was because her network, her Rolodex, was so impressive. And a lot of people kind of moved around her, orbited around her. And she really liked it that way. She really liked to be at the center of things and a person of influence.

Kate Linebaugh: But in 2020, the COVID pandemic brought everything, including Fu's glittering social life, to an abrupt halt. It was also around this time that Fu separated from her longtime boyfriend, an Italian man she'd dated for years.

Lingling Wei: One person close to Fu said that this is when she reconnected with Qin Gang. The person said that they reconnected during COVID basically "out of boredom."

Kate Linebaugh: During the pandemic, when Qin became China's ambassador to the US, he moved to Washington. According to Lingling's reporting, Chinese officials were told that Qin and Fu had an affair throughout his US ambassadorship. People we spoke with who knew Qin in DC said they never saw him with Fu. But the two did make at least one public appearance together, and it was on camera.

Lingling Wei: (foreign language).

Qin Gang: (foreign language)

Speaker 11: In March of 2022, flew in from Beijing to interview Qin for her show. The taping took place at Phoenix's DC office. The interview itself was fairly standard. Fu asks Qin about foreign affairs. Qin gamely responds with the party line.

Fu Xiaotian: (foreign language).

Qin Gang: (inaudible).

Kate Linebaugh: But looking back at the footage, it's not the content of the conversation that stands out.

Lingling Wei: I mean, we all benefit from hindsight, now that we know they had affair. So when you watch this video again then you would kind of see the sparks that were flying between Fu Xiaotian and Qin Gang. You can kind of tell. There's certain kind of closeness between them. They like to make very knowing kind of eye contact.

Kate Linebaugh: Especially during the final minutes of the interview. The footage shows Fu and Qin leaving the studio and heading out onto the roof. They stroll side by side as romantic music swells around them. Then Fu gives the ambassador a gift, a copy of her book with a handwritten note inside the cover. They smile shyly as he reads it. Fu looks happy. But things were about to change for her. Fu's interview with Qin would turn out to be one of her last for Talk With World Leaders. Soon after the taping, Fu stopped hosting the show. We asked Phoenix about this, but the network didn't respond to our questions. Fu had suddenly vanished from the show that had given her everything, status, fame, connections. For a time she'd leave China too. She was about to start a new chapter of her life, one that would end in her disappearance. That's next. We don't know a lot about Fu's life after she stopped hosting her show in 2022. The little we do know is based on her social media posts. In early 2023, Fu started posting photos that showed her living a rather lavish, if private, life. Pictures of her taking scenic walks and sipping wine against a deep orange sunset. These pictures weren't taken in China though. They were taken in the US, in Southern California. So Lingling and our producer Alan Rodriguez Espinoza flew out there.

Alan Rodriguez Espinosa: Okay. Ready?

Lingling Wei: Yeah.

Alan Rodriguez Espinosa: To see what they could learn about Fu's time in California after she went off the air.

Alan Rodriguez Espinosa: All right, so where are we right now?

Lingling Wei: Right now we are in a shopping plaza in a very affluent residential community in Newport Beach, Southern California. This plaza is very close to the very secluded residential compound Fu Xiaotian stayed in.

Kate Linebaugh: Fu's photos show her staying in a yellow stucco mansion inside this gated community. The house is over the top fancy with ornate columns and an outdoor pool.

Lingling Wei: Hello.

Speaker 14: Hi.

Lingling Wei: Hi. Good morning.

Speaker 14: Good morning.

Lingling Wei: Hi. I am sorry to bother you.

Kate Linebaugh: Lingling and Alan tried to make a visit.

Lingling Wei: We are here trying to find out some information about a Chinese woman who used to live in this area.

Speaker 14: Don't know. We don't have any.

Kate Linebaugh: They were turned away. They also reached out to the owners of the mansion, but the owners declined to comment. The house was a dead end. But there's something else that stands out from Fu's posts around this time, pictures of Fu with a baby.

Lingling Wei: For example there are two posts she put on her social media account that showed she was holding the baby and taking a walk in front of this huge house. There is another picture of her holding the baby standing in the balcony looking out to the sea.

Kate Linebaugh: Fu first started posting photos with the baby early last year. He's a cute little guy with wispy black hair and dark eyes. People who knew Fu told us she'd talked openly about wanting a child. One person close to her said she wanted to use a surrogate, that she was worried about the impact a pregnancy could have on her career. And this person told us she ultimately did have a baby via surrogacy. But who was the father? Remember, that according to Lingling's sources, when Chinese officials were briefed on the investigation into Qin, they were told he had an affair. But they were also told something else, something we haven't mentioned yet. Chinese officials were told that Qin's affair had resulted in the birth of a child in the US. And in Fu's social media posts she seemed to be dropping some hints about her baby's father, albeit cryptic ones. In one post, Fu implies that the father is Chinese. It includes a photo of the baby with a caption, "Congratulating someone." That post was made at the time Qin was promoted to State Counselor. Another post reveals the name of the baby, Er-Kin. Lingling says in Chinese that could be a play on words to mean son of Qin.

Lingling Wei: It's as if she was trying to tell the whole world, "Yes, I am having a relationship, or I have had a relationship with Qin Gang." And also she seemed to be indicating that Qin Gang was the father of the baby.

Kate Linebaugh: We don't know whether that's true, but if Qin was the father, why would Fu want the world to know? One person close to Fu says that when Qin was promoted to Foreign Minister and moved back to China, their relationship broke down. According to this person, Fu couldn't accept that Qin's priority was the party, not her or her son. In a social media post in March 2023, Fu seemed to express her frustration. She wrote in Chinese that truly loving someone doesn't mean hoping for their promotion, but wishing instead for them to be reunited with their family. In another post, Fu said she'd be heading back to China soon. The following month, in April of 2023, Fu posted a picture of herself and her baby aboard a private jet. She was smiling. Er-Kin was sucking on the sleeve of his sweater. It's the last public post on her social media feeds and then-

Lingling Wei: Fu Xiaotian completely disappeared, vanished. Ever since her last social media posts early last year, before the summer, not a trace of her anywhere.

Kate Linebaugh: Like Qin, Fu was missing. They'd had an affair. Fu had a baby in the US. But why did the Chinese government care? Lingling wondered what did any of this have to do with China's national security?

Lingling Wei: He at the time was China's Foreign Minister. His job involved handling the Americans and other foreigners. And then turns out he had a son who was born in the United States, and also he had this affair in the United States. What if that affair had opened Qin up to some kind of manipulation, to even blackmail? Maybe that's what led to fears that this affair could have compromised China's national security.

Kate Linebaugh: But Lingling's reporting was about to reveal that there was much more to the story of Qin's investigation. It turned out the main issue wasn't the baby or the affair itself. According to Lingling's sources, Chinese officials were told that behind Fu and Qin's sudden disappearance was an allegation, an allegation of espionage.

Lingling Wei: At the end of the call, I just turned off my recorder. I said, "Listen, I'm working on very sensitive story. I need to know what you know about this." And guess what he said?

Kate Linebaugh: That's next time, on the final episode of The Missing Minister. That episode is already in your feed. The Missing Minister is part of The Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal.