The Chinese foreign minister has been relieved of his duties

Chen Gang has not been seen since June 25, when he met his Vietnamese counterpart in Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Gang has been sacked from his post after he mysteriously disappeared from public life for a month, Chinese state media reported.

Chen Gang, 57, a former aide to President Xi Jinping and US envoy, took over the ministry in December, but has not appeared in public since June 25, when he met visiting diplomats in Beijing.

His disappearance sparked rumors on social media, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially attributed his absence to “health reasons” and then kept silent.

Chen Gang has not been seen since June 25, when he met his Vietnamese counterpart in Beijing.

Since then, he has been absent from several diplomatic appointments, including the ASEAN summit in early July in Indonesia.

Chen was one of China’s youngest foreign ministers, enjoying a rapid rise that analysts have attributed in part to his closeness to Xi. He was the State Department spokesperson twice between 2006 and 2014 and chief of protocol from 2014 to 2018, and oversaw many of Xi’s contacts with foreign leaders.

His replacement, Wang Yi, is in charge of diplomatic affairs in the Chinese Communist Party and Minister of Foreign Affairs.