China's ousted foreign minister had few fans in Washington

The consensus in Washington was that "Qin had been particularly difficult and that he had not been very effective as ambassador," said Zack Cooper, former assistant to the deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism at the National Security Council. "It's not like we've lost a critical piece of the U.S.-China puzzle — it might be that we've removed an impediment." Qin had not appeared in public since June 25, and speculation about his whereabouts — complete with the Twitter hashtag #WhereisQinGang — has flown thick and fast in recent weeks. Beijing has not provided an explanation for his disappearance…