How much trouble is Xi really in? Outgunned Taiwan may be about to find out

Smart, combative, handsome, Qin Gang was fast-tracked to stardom. As a protege of Xi Jinping, China's dictator-president, the precocious "wolf warrior" diplomat rose to the giddy heights of foreign minister at age 56. Then, last summer, he vanished. It was as if he had been deleted, physically and digitally, as if he had never existed. He has yet to re-materialise. Qin's mysterious disappearance sparked wild, often prurient media speculation. Beijing has still not offered an official explanation. But Chinese online reports, which significantly went uncensored, implied he was disgraced after secretly fathering a child in an affair with a well-known…