The rumored mistress of ousted Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang hasn’t been heard from since April — and mentions of her have been suppressed on the nation’s top social media platform, sources tell The Post.
The married Qin was removed from his position as Beijing’s top diplomat after a probe by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revealed he had carried on an affair during an 18-month stint as ambassador to Washington, according to the Wall Street Journal.
While the mistress’s identity has not been officially revealed, posters on China’s premiere social media platform, Weibo, have long named former Phoenix TV presenter Fu Xiaotian as Gang’s love interest.
Fu is now scarcely mentioned on Weibo.
All direct discussion of her has been blocked by moderators, and users have to refer to her by abbreviations of her name in order to avoid their posts being flagged.
Fu was last heard from publicly on April 10 this year, with a social media post saying she was returning to Beijing from Los Angeles.
Fu also posted a picture of her son, Er-Kin, who is rumored to have been fathered by Qin.
“Last time flying alone with this aircraft was from LA to DC for a work visit, and that both happily and sadly turned to be the very last interview I did with ‘Talk with World Leaders’,” she wrote, referring to the program she used to work for. “This aircraft was also from LA, but with precious baby son Er-Kin.”
Since then there have been no clues as to her whereabouts or even if she did, in fact, land in China. Previuosly she had been a regular and active poster on social media channels.
She also attached a photo from an interview with a man believed to be Qin.
The comments section to the post on Weibo — which had been open two months ago — has been disabled.
Fu has long been a popular topic on the site, with users speculating on rumors of prior romantic entanglements with notable officials.
A photo previously circulated on the site showing Fu and a man of similar age caring for a child, alongside claims he was Fu’s lawful husband.
But in a March 2022 post, Fu denied that the man was her spouse.
Fu is also believed to have maintained a private Instagram account, on which she posted photos of her son’s “100th day of life” last March 4.
“Oh, and just so you know, my son’s father is not American,” she wrote. “We’re actually planning to return to our home country soon, and we’re extremely excited about it!”
CCP officials were briefed on Qin’s dismissal in August, the Journal reported.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu was also taken in for an interrogation two weeks ago amid an unrelated CCP investigation, the paper reported Friday.
He is expected to lose his position. Chinese officials have not formally addressed either ouster.