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Wang Yi continues to perform duties of head of Foreign Affairs Commission Office

Wang Yi has effectively been acting as a foreign minister since the end of June, when former minister Qin Gang stopped appearing in public

BEIJING, July 25. /TASS/. Wang Yi has just been appointed China’s foreign minister but the Xinhua news agency is still referring to him as the head of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Xinhua used Wang Yi’s previous title in a report from Johannesburg where security officials from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - the member countries of the BRICS bloc - just held a meeting. The report came out after the Chinese official was named the country’s foreign minister by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

That could mean Wang Yi will combine these two posts in the future, exerting closer control of the Chinese Communist Party over the country’s Foreign Ministry.

Wang Yi’s profile on Baidu, a Chinese Internet services company, lists him as holding all of the three titles.

Wang Yi has effectively been acting as a foreign minister since the end of June, when former minister Qin Gang stopped appearing in public, meaning the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress only formalized his status. Wang Yi turns 70 in October.

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