Curiosity grows over Qin's whereabouts

Foreign minister Qin Gang has not been seen in nearly a month and is set to miss at least another important meeting in South Africa next week.

Beijing has since said Qin is off for unspecified health reasons and it's message to the curious is "just wait and see."

Qin's successor as envoy to the United States, Xie Feng, was asked on Wednesday about Qin's whereabouts at the Aspen Security Conference.

"The foreign ministry spokesman has briefed the media about this. Thank you for your care," Xie said.

The former aide to President Xi Jinping was appointed foreign minister in December after serving less than two years as ambassador to the US.

Since taking up the post, he has played a prominent role in steering rocky US-China ties, meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing in June on the first visit by a top US diplomat in five years to China.

But his last public engagement was a meeting with visiting Russian, Sri Lankan and Vietnamese officials on June 25.

Then he disappeared.