NEW YORK (TIP): A close associate of President Xi Jinping, has been appointed  as the new Foreign Minister of China,  replacing Wang Yi who had served in the post for 10 years. Chinese president Xi Jinping’s chief protocol officer between 2014 and 2018, Qin Gang  has had high-profile postings, including spokesman at the Foreign Ministry and at the Chinese embassy in Britain, besides a 17-month stint as the US envoy.

Wang was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and will play a bigger role in foreign policy instead of his predecessor Yang Jiechi, who has been dropped. Both Wang and Yang had crossed the retirement age of 68 for all leaders except for Xi.

In a recent article, he had said the US side must abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiqués on the Taiwan issue. The US must oppose and stop “Taiwan independence”, support the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations and China’s peaceful reunification, he had written.

But Qin has also been reflecting Beijing’s desire to mend fences with the US by stating recently that the China-US ties are not a zero-sum game. Xi held his first in-person summit with US President Joe Biden in Bali last November. — TNS