The last day that Chingang, China's then foreign minister was seen in public, was on June 25th of last year.

It was a hot humid day in Beijing and according to his

official schedule Chin spent some of that day carrying out his foreign minister duties as usual. Mostly this meant

meeting other foreign ministers. We know from Chingang's official schedule that he met with Sri Lanka's foreign minister.

That's chief China correspondent Ling Wei.

Chin and the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister discussed China's belt and

road initiative. They shook hands and snapped a picture in front of their country's

flags.

We know he met with the Vietnamese foreign minister and that they talked about the

Vietnamese prime minister's visit to China. Another handshake, another picture,

in front of another set of flags.

And Chingang also met with a representative from Russia, one of China's key partners.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Andre Rudenko, was in town that day. A photo from the day

from the day shows Chin and Rudenko striding out of a building mid-conversation.

Chin is tall with rimless glasses. He looks relaxed and confident and he had reason to be.

Chin was foreign minister, the country's top diplomat. He was a member of the

upper echelon of the political elite and he had the backing of China's powerful

leader Shijin ping. Chin had risen high and was expected to keep rising. But instead, after that day in June, Chin disappeared.

All of a sudden, you know, people kind of realize they hadn't seen Chingang on TV, on state media reports, anywhere. He just sort of like vanished all of

certain from public view.

He even skipped some meetings,

very important international meetings.

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