The alleged extramarital affair may not entirely explain Qin Gang's downfall, experts tell Newsweek.
, China's former foreign minister, has only grown murkier as new details emerged about an alleged extramarital affair with state media journalist Fu Xiaotian.
Fu, a correspondent for Phoenix Television headquartered in Hong Kong, had previously posted about her son, Er-kin, on the Chinese social networking site. Surrogacy is illegal in China, although Chinese courts have ruled no significant punishments in these cases.by rising swiftly through the ranks of the Foreign Ministry.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, believes Xi may not have known about the personal problems associated with Qin and Li Shangfu,, until they were revealed by others in government. Their fate could also have been related to their being Xi's allies., Xi has turned the whole CCP into the Xi faction. But given the nature of the politics in such a system, sub-factions among Xi's proteges would emerge.