Before Minister Qin Gang, these Chinese personalities who mysteriously disappeared

He has not appeared in public since June 25. A month after his mysterious disappearance, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was officially relieved of his duties on Tuesday July 25, without any justification. This Wednesday, the ministry refused to comment on this choice to the press.

Until now, the Chinese authorities invoked health reasons to excuse his absence at several diplomatic meetings. But since the announcement of his dismissal, this diplomat close to President Xi Jinping has been completely erased from the ministry's website. On social networks, he is credited with an affair with a presenter from a Hong Kong television channel, which would have cost him his place.

Politicians, businessmen, actors, athletes, journalists... The "disappearances" of embarrassing personalities are commonplace under the communist regime in China. They often reappear a few months or years later, repentant or behind bars.

On November 2, 2021, the tennis player posted a long message on the Weibo social network accusing former Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Gaoli of having raped her three times earlier, when they had a secret relationship. The publication is erased by the censors in about twenty minutes, like any trace of the existence of Peng Shuai on the Chinese Internet.

A few weeks before the Winter Olympics in China, international pressure, in particular from sports bodies, is increasing on the country, summoned to give news of Peng Shuai. The sportswoman reappears twenty days later, in two videos that smack of staging, before the boss of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can talk to her.

Speeches that "do not allay the WTA's concerns about its well-being and its ability to communicate without censorship or coercion", writes the world body of women's tennis in December. In early 2022, Peng Shuai gave an interview to the newspaper L'Équipe, in the presence of a Chinese official. She claims to have “never disappeared” and to have “never said that anyone [him] had subjected [lui] to any sexual assault”. She announces in passing the end of her professional career.

He was the richest man in China. The billionaire, founder of the giant Alibaba, vanished in October 2020, a few days after having publicly criticized Chinese public banks. He was replaced on the jury of a reality show he had created, officially for a "schedule problem". But, like Minister Qin Gang, his photo is deleted from the broadcast site. The authorities, they, suspend the IPO of Ant, its online bank, and launch an investigation against the group for monopolistic practices.

While the whole world is wondering about his fate, Jack Ma reappears a few months later, in January 2021, in an exchange with professors by videoconference. Other photos show him, emaciated, talking with employees of the Alibaba group, of which he is still a shareholder. The man is now discreet and would live in Tokyo, according to the Financial Times. Like him, several other entrepreneurs have borne the brunt of Beijing taking over the private sector.

At the end of January 2020, the Covid-19 wreaked havoc in Wuhan. Fang Bin sets out to film overcrowded hospitals, critically ill patients and body bags piling up as Chinese authorities seek to hide the scale of the outbreak. "Give the power of government back to the people," he dares to write in a video in early February. The whistleblower disappears.

Fang Bin was finally released in May after three years in detention. In the meantime, he was sentenced for “spreading false news”. Since his release, he would still be watched and not free to express himself, according to one of his supporters. Like him, other citizen journalists disappeared after relaying videos showing the scale of the epidemic.

Highest paid actress in the country, member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival the previous year... In 2018, Fan Bingbing is at the peak of her career when she suddenly disappears at the beginning of the summer. We no longer see her in public and her social networks, usually fed daily, have become silent. A few weeks earlier, a TV presenter revealed a system of double contracts – which she would have benefited from – allowing celebrities to hide a large part of their income from the tax authorities.

After four months of silence, in October, the authorities announced that Fan Bingbing owed nearly 900 million yuan in taxes (about a hundred million euros at the time) and that she had been placed under house arrest. The actress then apologizes on the Weibo social network. She has since reappeared on red carpets and magazine covers internationally, but her film career seems to have stalled.

In September 2018, it is stupor at the headquarters of Interpol in Lyon. The boss of the international organization for police cooperation cannot be found. It was his wife who ended up giving the alert to the French authorities. She hasn't heard from Meng Hongwei since September 25 and this last disturbing message: "wait for my call", preceded by a dagger emoji. The call never came.

Beijing is walled in silence for ten days, before announcing that the boss of Interpol is in China, in detention, suspected of corruption. He was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison. His wife and their two children were granted political asylum in France.