Asked about his disappearance from the foreign ministry website, Mao said: “Information on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is updated according to relevant management regulations.”
The foreign ministry had for weeks refused to give any updates on Qin despite repeated questioning, after previously saying “health reasons” were to blame for his absence.
State media gave no reason for his dismissal but one expert said the “digital erasure” of Qin suggested he had fallen from grace.
“If he were a comrade in good standing who had fallen ill I am not sure that would be happening,” China analyst Bill Bishop wrote in his Sinocism newsletter.
“Evidence is emerging suggesting this is indeed a political purge,” Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute, a US think tank, said on Twitter, which is being rebranded as “X”.