According to media reports, all references to the supposed mistress of the deposed Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang have been scrubbed from the country’s most popular social media platform.
An inquiry by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) showed that the married Qin had carried on an affair during his 18-month stay as ambassador to Washington, prompting his removal from his position as Beijing’s top diplomat.
Posters on Weibo, China’s most popular social media platform, have long speculated that former Phoenix TV presenter Fu Xiaotian is Gang’s mistress; however, neither of their identities have been confirmed.
Weibo users now rarely talk about Fu.
Moderators have removed the ability to engage in direct conversation about her, forcing people to use shortened forms of her name to avoid having their posts removed.
Fu’s last public appearance was on April 10 this year, when she announced on social media that she was flying back to Beijing from Los Angeles with her baby. Commenters speculated that Qin is the father of her son Er-Kin after she posted a photo of the baby on the plane.
Since then, no information has surfaced suggesting where she could be or if she even made it to China. She used to be a very active participant in online communities. That has ceased. She also included a photo of herself with a man she identified as Qin, taken during an interview.
The Weibo post’s comment section opened two months ago and is now closed.
For a long time, speculation about reports of love entanglements between Fu and prominent politicians has been a popular topic on the site.
A photo of Fu and a man around the same age caring for a child went viral on the site. The man was allegedly Fu’s legitimate husband. However, in March of 2022, Fu dispelled that belief.
Fu allegedly also kept a secret Instagram account, where she shared images from her son’s “100th day of life” on March 4.
