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Qin, 57, who only took up the job in December after a brief
stint as envoy to the United States, had not been seen in public
since June 25 when he met visiting diplomats in Beijing.
After he missed an international diplomatic summit in Indonesia,
his ministry later said he was off work for unspecified health
reasons, but the lack of detailed information fuelled a swirl of
speculation.
It also deepened suspicion about transparency and
decision-making among the country's cloistered leadership,
analysts and diplomats said.
Wang, 69, who filled in for Qin during his absence, retakes the
role he held between 2018 and 2022.
China's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for
comment about reasons behind the switch.
It comes amid a flurry of international engagements and frayed
ties with rival superpower the United States, which Beijing has
described as at their lowest point since the establishment of
diplomatic relations.
The world's two biggest economies are at odds over issues
including Ukraine and Beijing's close ties to Moscow, trade and
technology disputes, and Taiwan, the democratic, self-ruled
island which Beijing claims as its own.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and
Nick Macfie)
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