Transcript of The Missing Minister, Episode 3: The Downfall

This is the third episode of The Missing Minister. If you haven't already listened to episodes one and two, we recommend doing that first. One day, I got a text from our colleague, Linling Wei. She just connected with a source, and what she'd learned would redirect the course of our reporting. So you met with a source who knows what what's going on with Chin Gang?

Yes.

Is there anything you can tell us about this source?

Let me think a little bit. I can only say this source has knowledge about the parting investigation into Chin Gang and what it had turned up.

For months, we've been trying to figure out why Chinese officials seem to take Chin's affairs with Fu Shauwtian so seriously. Now, Linlin's source was offering an explanation.

It was quite unbelievable. It was unbelievable. According to the source, QiGong disappeared last year because the Chinese were told that the woman he had affair with, Fu Shauwtian, was a spy.

A spy. This was an explosive allegation. So Linlin kept reporting, kept talking to people in a position to know about Chin's investigation, and she kept us in the loop along the way.

I do trust the source. I've known him for years as well.

She reached out to sources she's cultivated in over a decade of reporting on China. I said, Listen, I'm working on very sensitive stories.

I need to know what you know about this.

Through that reporting, Linling was able to confirm what her first source had said. Chinese officials were told that Fu had been a spy for Eastern intelligence.

Specifically, they were told that Fu was a spy for the British.

We haven't been able to confirm whether this allegation is true or false. We asked the British government if Fu was a spy for MI6, the British Foreign Intelligence Agency, and the UK Foreign Office declined to confirm or deny if she was, as is their policy. We also asked the Chinese Foreign Ministry about this and they had no comment. Fu hasn't been seen in public in more than a year, and we haven't been able to reach her. But according to Linlin's sources, it was this allegation allegation of espionage, true or not, that sparked Chin's downfall. For Linling, this was a huge breakthrough, but it also raised another question, where did this allegation of espionage come from? From the Journal, I'm Kate Linebaugh, and this is The Missing Minister. A three-part investigation into the mysterious disappearance of China's Foreign Minister. Episode 3, The Downfall.

Snakes, zombies, public speaking.

The list of fears is endless. But the real danger is in your hand when you're behind the wheel. Distracted driving is what's really scary. And even deadly. Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you by Nitzza and the Ad Council. According to Linlin's reporting, Chinese officials were told that Fu Shauwtien had allegedly spied for the British. But her sources also told her something else about where this allegation first came from.

Here, the Chinese have to thank their Russian friends.

Scroll back to June 25th of last year, the last day Chin was seen in public. At the time, a delegation from Moscow was in Beijing, led by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, André Rudinko. According to Linlin's reporting, Chinese officials were told that during that trip, either Rudinko himself or someone very senior in his entourage tipped off the Chinese.

They basically dropped the bombshell. Your foreign minister slept with a British spy.

We reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry about this alleged tip. They didn't respond, and the Chinese Foreign Ministry had no comment. We can't confirm whether the Russians, in fact, tipped the Chinese. But according to Linlin's sources, this is the story that senior Chinese officials were told by their higher ups to explain Chin's disappearance. According to her sources, the Chinese viewed the tip as a gesture of friendship. China and Russia have become increasingly close in recent years. They share intelligence, and their leaders, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, have common interests.

They both see the United States as a big threat to their national interests, and they want to get aligned to counter the United States and its allies. There's also a big personal component to this relationship. The two leaders really get along very well. They have developed a ritual of wishing each other happy birthday, and they have met in person more than 40 times The Chinese government hasn't publicly explained Fu's disappearance, and it's possible there's more to the story than what was shared with high-level Chinese officials, that something else was going on.

Remember, we can't confirm whether the allegation that Fu was a spy is true or false. One person close to Fu made the point that the same attributes that might have made her valuable to Western intelligence, her connections, her ties to the UK, also made her vulnerable to spying accusations. Whatever the truth, according to Linlin's sources, Chin was brought in for questioning. What did he know about Fu? Could he have been a spy himself?

The party investigation was not for the faint-hearted for sure. I was told that it was a very grueling process.

What do you mean by grueling?

According to our sources, Chen Gang was being questioned day in and day out, having his entire life examined by the party investigators. He was undergoing all that interrogation in a very confined place, isolated from family and any legal representation. He had to know that his whole career, his whole life was on the line.

And according to your sources and reporting, is there any sense that Chin Gang was a spy?

Chin Gang was certainly investigated for espionage According to our sources, he insisted he was innocent, and he repeatedly pledged his loyalty to Xi Jinping. But he had an affair with someone who allegedly betrayed the country. So by association, that was a very serious offense.

Did Jin have any suspicions about Fu?

So according to our sources, when Chinese party investigators confronted Chen Gang with Fu Shauwtian's possible MI6 connection, Chen Gang was extremely surprised and devastated.

Chen suffered a mental breakdown during the investigation, according to Linlin's sources. And at one point, he was on suicide watch at a Chinese military hospital.

Just months before he disappeared, he was still riding very high. He was considered such a rising star in Chinese political system. And all of a sudden, he found himself being investigated for something as serious as espionage? Very hard to take.

Espionage is a serious accusation anywhere. But in today's China, it's especially damaging. How concerned is China about foreign espionage right now?

Incredibly concerned. Xi Jinping believes that the Black Hand of Western intelligence is trying to bring him down.

That's Dennis Wilder. Dennis spent 36 years working for the CIA.

I was a military analyst on China. I spent time overseas doing operational things.

What operational things did you do overseas?

What you would expect the spy to do overseas? Spotting, assessing, recruiting, shooting of what we call hard targets, the Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans.

In recent years, the Chinese have been increasingly anxious about foreign spies. Dennis says that anxiety comes straight from the man in charge.

Xi Jinping thinks we're out to get him personally. He thinks he has to do everything possible to protect himself.

There are history here. A little over a decade ago, China discovered a network of CIA spies working inside its government. Some were high-ranking Chinese officials. What happened there?

I'm afraid that is not a subject that I can talk about.

Okay.

That remains highly classified.

Dennis wouldn't talk about it, but the Wall Street Journal has reported that as many as two dozen CIA assets in China were rounded up, imprisoned, or executed. All of this was happening as Xi was being groomed for power. As China's leader, he has been intensely focused on national security, routing out spies is part of that. The job lands primarily on China's main intelligence agency, its Ministry of State Security, or MSS.

What we have seen recently is as Xi Jinping promoted the head of the MSS in an unusual step to the very important Pola Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party. Also, the MSS has become very open about its activities. They offer money, and they give a hotline for Chinese if they suspect somebody of spying. So it's a very aggressive campaign by the Chinese at this point. They're very assertive. Frankly, in the modern era, I've never seen it like this.

This was the backdrop to Chin's disappearance and to Fu's. It's why the spying accusation against her was so serious.

Like Chen Gang, Fuchao Tian was also investigated. According to our sources, after the Chinese got this tip, Fuchao Tian was already back in Beijing, so it was very easy to bring her in for questioning. But we do not know the outcome of that investigation into her. The party generally doesn't disclose matters As sensitive as espionage.

Under Chinese law, espionage carries serious consequences. Penalties can range from imprisonment to execution, and often the trials are held in secret. Do we know where she is?

No idea. It's quite a mystery exactly what happened to her.

What about the baby?

We do not know anything about the baby.

We asked the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the whereabouts of Fu and her baby. They had no comment. Just a few years earlier, Fu had been the toast of Beijing. The center of social events like her book launch, when diplomats had taken to the stage to praise her sophistication and grace.

Elegance is not something that catches your eyes, but rather, elegance is the ability not to be forgotten.

But today, Fou seems on her way to being forgotten. In her absence, what we have are rumors, old interviews from her show, some inactive social media accounts, a garden at an English university. In many ways, Fou has been airbrush away. But that would prove harder to do with Chin. Chin had been the country's foreign minister, a state counselor, and over a year after his disappearance, there had been little indication of what his future could be. And then this summer, the Chinese Communist Party dropped a hint. That's next. You worked for the CIA?

For 20 years, yes.

What did you do there?

I was the top political analyst on China.

That's Chris Johnson, another former CIA official. Chris has been analyzing and observing China for years. Like us, he was captivated by the mystery of Chin Gang's disappearance. And this summer, he thought there might be an opportunity to learn something about Chin's status.

There was something called the third plenum of the 20th Central Committee. These plenary sessions.

The third plenum. It's a high Eurofile Communist Party meeting, the event that in past years, Chin would have been part of. Hundreds of party officials converge on Beijing, dressed in black suits and military uniforms. They gather at the Great all of the people in a room draped in revolutionary red. The official goal of the meeting is to discuss economic matters.

It was largely focused on economic matters. But if there's any personnel housekeeping that needs to be done, then oftentimes they will do that as well because the party constitution actually requires them to do it that way if they're adding or removing members of the central committee. As I like to say, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't have a lot of rules, but the few that they have, they actually do follow.

These personnel changes were what China watchers like Chris and reporters like Linlin were looking out for. At the end of the plenum, the party releases a written recap of the meeting. A communique. When it came out, Linlin scrolled straight down to the personnel section for news.

One key change involves our man, Chen Gang.

What happened?

The communique that was issued by state media stated that, Comrade Chen Gang's resignation request was accepted, and Comrade Chen Gang was removed from his position as a member of the Central Committee.

In the months after his disappearance, Chin had been stripped of most of his official titles. He was no longer Foreign Minister and no longer State counselor, but there was one title he'd held on to. He was still a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Now, the party was announcing he'd been stripped of that final title, too. Chin's high-flying political career was officially over.

But crucially- Chin Gang was listed as Comrade, Comrade Chin Gang, which tells us that he's still a party member, and so he would not still be a party member if they had intention to prosecute him. We had a sense then that he was going to be at least spared that, number one. Then number two, it was equally they weren't going to say another thing about his case. It's like, Comrade Chin Gang has left, and we're moving on.

But Chin still hasn't been seen, and the party hasn't explained his absence. Chris says that's unusual.

Almost always, there's an instinct inside the system to want to show the system is not rotten. There are a few bad apples, and when we find these bad apples, we throw the book at them and they go away. In other words, His having disappeared for months and months and months with no explanation as to what happened to him, that leaves a running soar, if you want to call it that, that the regime in normal times would explain in some way or the other. It's absolutely clear they don't intend to explain this. If it was just an extramarital affair, they would. The fact that they're not doing that explains to us that whatever has happened is of great sensitivity to them and highly embarrassing.

Chin's rise to the top of Chinese politics had ended in a spectacular fall, and that failure didn't just reflect on Chin.

Xi Jinping trusted Chen Gang so much. Remember, Chen Gang was picked by the top leader himself, right? Before all this went down.

So it would be egg on the face of Xi Jinping.

Exactly. He He decides who gets promoted and who gets demoted. He controls the security, very powerful security apparatus. He decides how to run the world's second largest economy. So he's the one man who makes all those important decisions.

Xi trusted Chin. Xi made Chin China's ambassador to the US. He made Chin, Foreign Minister and State counselor. In the end, those decisions backfired. And when they did, Chin, one of the party's rising stars, disappeared, just like so many others in Xi's China.

This practice of secret detention, investigation, torture, execution is a practice that's been in existence for many decades. But under Xi Jinping, we have heard more prominent figures disappearing.

Under Xi, the net of disappearances has widened. It's not just the usual suspects who disappear, the journalists, activists, corrupt politicians. It's business people, bankers, government advisors, high-level military officials, and in some cases, it's Xi's supporters, like Chin.

People had thought that as long as you are close to Xi Jinping, you're safe. No matter how many bad things you do, you're safe. You're going to be safe. Obviously, QiGong's downfall showed that the fact that I promoted you is not guarantee for your political safety down the road.

Linlin doesn't write off the possibility that Chin could reemerge one day, that he won't stay missing. Maybe he'll be granted a low-level government job. There could even be a pension, government health care. It would be a small life, nothing like the one he had before when he was an actor on the world's stage. But whether that happens, whether Chin ever gets to exist again, whether Fu and her baby ever reappear, it'll likely be at the discretion of one man, Xi Jinping. The Missing Minister is part of The Journal, which is a coproduction of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. I'm your host, Kate Limeba. This series was produced by Annie Minoff and Alan Rodriguez Espinosa. It was reported by Maria Byrne and Lingling Way. It was edited by Maria Byrne. Additional reporting in this episode from Max Colchester, Anne Simmons, and Warren Strobel. Mary Mathis is our fact checker. Sound design and mixing by Griffin Tanner. Music direction by Nathan Singapock. Music in this episode by Nathan Singapock, Peter Leonard, Griffin Tanner, and Blue Dot Sessions. Our theme music is by So Wily and remixed by Nathan Singapock. Special thanks to Katherine Brewer, Elaina Cherny, Laura Morris, Elana Patterson, Sarah Platt, Heather Rogers, Iruna Vishwanatha, and to the entire journal team.

Thanks for listening..