The entrance to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, capital of China. File photo: Xinhua

China's top legislature convened a session on Tuesday to review a draft criminal law amendment and a decision on official appointment and removal. Qin Gang has been removed of his position as Foreign Minister. Wang Yi was appointed as the Chinese Foreign Minister. Tuesday's decision has not touched on Qin's title of State Councilor.

Wang, 70-year-old veteran diplomat, began his career in the foreign ministry in 1982, and became the counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Japan in 1989 and then the minister counselor in April 1993. He then was appointed as the deputy director general of the department of Asian Affairs at the ministry in 1994 and then the director general of the department of Asian Affairs from 1995 to 1998. 

Wang served as the Vice Minister and CPC Committee member of the ministry from 2001 to 2004 before he was appointed as the Chinese ambassador to Japan. 

Wang also served as the director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council from 2008 to 2013. Between 2013 and 2018, Wang served as the minister and deputy secretary of CPC Committee of foreign ministry, and since 2018, he served as the State Councilor, member of the Leading CPC Members Group of the State Council, and Minister of Foreign Affairs before Qin took up the position in 2022. 

Born in 1966 in North China's Tianjin, Qin began working at the Chinese Foreign Ministry in 1988 and became the attaché and third secretary of Department of West European Affairs of the ministry from 1992 to 1995. 

He then worked as the third secretary and second secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the UK from 1995 to 1999 and then became the second secretary and deputy division director. He was later appointed as the division director of the department of West European Affairs of the ministry. 

He was the counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the UK from 2002 to 2005, after which he returned to China to work as the ministry's spokesperson from 2005 to 2010. 

Qin was promoted to the director-general of the information department of the ministry in 2011 after he finished his tenure as a minister of the Chinese Embassy in the UK from 2010 to 2011. In 2014, he became the director-general of the protocol department of the ministry. 

Qin was promoted to the vice minister of the Foreign Ministry in 2018 and three years later became the Chinese Ambassador to the US. He arrived in the US in July, 2021 to take his post as the Chinese Ambassador.

Qin was appointed as the Chinese Foreign Minister, according to a decision made by the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, on December 30, 2022.

The last time Qin made a public appearance was on June 25 for meetings with the Russian, Vietnamese, and Sri Lankan foreign ministers, according to media reports. 

Answering a question from the Global Times during his first press conference as the Chinese Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the two sessions in March about some Western countries' hype that China could provide weapons to Russia or the notion that only China can end the Ukraine crisis, Qin said China is not the creator of the crisis, nor a party directly concerned. 

"What has China done to be blamed, or even sanctioned and threatened? This is absolutely unacceptable," he said.