Washington: One month after former rising star Qin Gang vanished from the public eye, China decided to re-appoint Wang Yi as its top diplomat, which means Washington will be dealing with a familiar face in its effort to normalise relations with its main strategic rival.

However, Wang's return to a position he held for the majority of the last ten years is unlikely to change the course of a problematic bilateral relationship or allay worries about the murky operations of President Xi Jinping's administration.

A mere half a year after assuming the position, Qin—reportedly a Xi protege—was fired on Tuesday. The 57-year-old former ambassador to the United States and aide to Xi assumed control of the ministry in December but hasn't been seen in the media since meeting with foreign diplomats on June 25 in Beijing.

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The ministry stated that he was off work due to health issues but provided no additional information. Wang has long been a fixture in US-China relations. He is renowned in Washington for his sharp intellect and his occasionally aggressive defence of China's positions.

Following weeks of rumours about Qin's fate, Wang's return to the ministry, according to analysts in Washington, should help the Chinese foreign ministry get back to business as usual.

However, the tense US-China relations, which have reached their lowest point in decades, are unlikely to significantly improve as a result.

According to Joseph Torigian, a specialist on China's Communist leaders who works at American University in Washington, "none of this changes the structural reasons for friction in the relationship."

An inquiry for comment from Reuters was not answered by the Chinese embassy in Washington. It was up to China to choose its foreign minister, according to Vedant Patel, the deputy spokesperson for the US State Department, who stated this during a briefing on Tuesday. Blinken had previously met Wang.

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In light of Xi's likely meetings with US President Joe Biden later this year on the sidelines of international summits, including the G20 in India in September and a meeting of APEC leaders in California in November, Wang's second stint as foreign minister suggests an eagerness in Beijing for stable US relations.

According to Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute, "Xi defaulted to someone who has relationships with many of his foreign counterparts with a series of major international meetings coming up." China wants consistency and predictability in this position during uncertain times.

Diplomats from the US and China are negotiating a number of contentious issues, including China's escalating aggression towards Taiwan, the self-governing island it claims as its own, and US export restrictions intended to limit China's ability to develop cutting-edge semiconductors.
Given these difficulties, Wang's position of authority within China's ruling Communist Party may be advantageous to the US.

In the Chinese system, the director of the Chinese Communist Party's foreign affairs commission—a position Wang will continue to hold—replaces the foreign minister as the top diplomat.

Wang's concurrent occupancy of the two highest-ranking foreign policy positions in the nation removed a layer of bureaucracy for US counterparts, according to Jude Blanchette, a China specialist at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Wang is a diplomat with arguably more influence with China's top leaders than his predecessor because he is a member of the Communist Party's ruling Politburo, which consists of 24 people.

Blinken maintained contact with Wang even when Qin was the foreign minister, despite their sometimes chilly interactions. This was especially true after an alleged Chinese spy balloon was shot down earlier this year after allegedly violating US airspace, prompting Wang to criticise Washington for its "hysterical" response.

Nevertheless, Blanchette claimed that Wang's reappointment is a sign of issues within China's foreign policy establishment.
"The bigger story here is the sheer opacity and unpredictability of the Chinese system, which can see a top foreign policy official being thrown into a black hole for a month with absolutely zero information from Beijing," he said.

Following Wang's appointment on Tuesday, material mentioning Qin was swiftly taken down from the website of the Chinese foreign ministry. The website's tab that usually contains the foreign minister's biography simply said "Updating."

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According to Craig Singleton, deputy director of the China programme at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, Wang's selection for the position also demonstrated Beijing's lack of viable alternatives.

Simply put, there aren't enough seasoned Chinese diplomats who Xi trusts and who have the necessary US experience for this prominent position, he said.