At the very beginning of this mystery, a lot of people were willing to believe the official explanation that he had fallen suddenly ill. The Foreign Ministry clammed up completely not just to impertinent foreign reporters, but also to ambassadors here in Beijing trying to set up important meetings with visiting foreign government leaders. As the mystery continued, the embarrassment for China mounted and that made it more and more likely that something had gone wrong, perhaps politically, for Chingang.
Russia’s axeing of the Black Sea grain deal reveals a war machine running out of options. We explore how to get the deal back on track. A month-long mystery surrounding China’s absent foreign minister has grown deeper: now his memory is being scrubbed from official websites (10:15). And literary criticism has lost its claws—gaining a newfound civility that is bad for readers (16:37).
For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, try a free 30-day digital subscription by going to www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer