Three months later, online fans of Qin Gang are still waiting for his return

Chinese propaganda idolized diplomats. Now fans want their fallen idol back.

China's former foreign minister Qin Gang was disappeared more than three months ago. But on China's internet, a group of his fans are still talking about him fondly and wondering when he'll be back.

Every day on Weibo, there are new posts about Qin from his fans. They post photos of him, video clips of his past remarks and fan-made pictures. There is a Chaohua, or super topic, dedicated to him, which works as a permanent hashtag.

In one recent post, a fan posted a picture of a smiling Qin and wrote: Winter longs for spring, summer longs for autumn. We are always longing.

冬盼春暖，夏盼秋凉
我们总是，不停期盼 ​ ​​​

Another fan wrote on mid-autumn festival, which symbolizes family reunion, that "the moon is turning round and things will get better as well" with a picture showing a keychain tag that says "comrade Qin Gang, wish everything is well".

月亮在慢慢变圆，事情也会慢慢变好！ ​​​

In their comments, they vaguely recognize that Qin is reportedly under investigation for alledgedly having a surrogate child in America with a journalist. But they would defend Qin against any netizens who left harsh comments under these fan posts.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. Fan culture surrounding Chinese diplomats has been a fixture on China's internet for years. The rise of it coincided with the rise of the so-called wolf warrior diplomacy. It has also been encouraged by the government.

"I tend to believe this is a mixture of nationalism and celebrity fan culture," Alex Chen, who studies diplomatic communications at Georgia State University, told me while I was reporting for VOA on this topic.

Other observers of China's social media I talked to shared similar views. Manya Koetse, founder of What’s On Weibo, pointed out that Xi Jinping himself was once idolized by netizens and state media.

The nickname "Xi Dada" (习大大), meaning daddy Xi or uncle Xi, used to be a trendy word on China's internet. It was accepted into the official narratives. It's hard to imagine this now but people in China were allowed to share cartoons and songs of Xi

.

But the celebritizaiton of Xi came to an abrupt halt around 2016. The communist party reportedly disseminated a memo ordering all levels of the government to stop using the word "Xi Dada".

But the idolization of government officials continued. Around the same time Xi became off limits, China's top diplomats found themselves in the center of the political fan culture.

Netizens and state media started calling them "Diplomatic Dream Team" (外交天团). Spokespersons such as Zhao Lijian, Hua Chunying and Wang Wenbin turned into well-known public figures thanks to their aggressive tone at news conferences and the high media exposure that ensued.

Zhao was maybe the most controversial one of them all. During his three-year tenure, he routinely mocked the US and promoted disinformation about Covid.

And he has the most loyal fan base as well. Nine months after he was moved to another diplomatic position which has nearly zero media coverage, there are still tons of new content about him being posted on China's social media by his fans.

In the introduction of his Chaohua (super topic) on Weibo, it was written, likely by fans, that "through wind and rain, we support you Old Zhao".

So are these fans really just fans or is Beijing behind them? Former Weibo censor Eric Liu says they are likely just fans as their posts don't get shared by official accounts and there's no sign that professional teams are operating these accounts.

What’s on Weibo’s Koetse doesn't think they are government connected, either. Political fan culture doesn't only exist in China. These fans may be genuinely proud of how China is run by these highly educated elites from all over the country. "A lot of people see them as role models," she said.

China doesn't allow open discussions of Qin's investigation but doesn't completely ban posts about him either. Liu suspects that Beijing hasn't given internet companies clear orders. So for now they would have to maintain whatever level of censorship they had for Qin in the past.