Is Dong Jingwei defecting or not? The official Chinese Communist Party issued an “appearance” photo

Zhao Kezhi, a member of the State Council and Minister of Public Security of the Communist Party of China, attended a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization by video on the 23rd, and delivered a speech. The image of Dong Jingwei, the rumored fugitive Vice Minister of State Security of the Communist Party of China, accompanying Zhao Kezhi to the meeting was exposed. It was quite bizarre to the outside world.

On June 23, sources from the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Public Security said that the 16th meeting of the secretaries of the security meetings of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states was held on June 23, and Zhao Kezhi delivered a speech.

The report said that Zhao Kezhi was accompanied by Meng Yang, deputy secretary-general of the State Council, Cheng Guoping, foreign affairs commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Du Hangwei, vice minister of the Ministry of Public Security, and Dong Jingwei, vice minister of the Ministry of State Security. CCP Ambassador to Tajikistan Liu Bin was in Dushanbe to participate in the meeting online. The report is accompanied by live pictures.

However, the relevant reports in Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily did not mention Dong Jingwei’s attendance at the meeting, nor did they have any pictures.

It is worth noting that rumors of Dong Jingwei’s defection have been festering overseas in the past week.

On June 4, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson wrote that he had received information from intelligence sources that a top-ranking Chinese defector in history had arrived in the United States. He has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for three months to tell the U.S. about the Chinese Communist Party’s “biological weapons program,” among other things.

On June 17, RedState, a conservative media outlet, reported that a government source confirmed that the fugitive was Dong Jingwei, who was in charge of counterintelligence for the Chinese Communist Party, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February this year, allegedly to visit his daughter at a California university.

When Dong landed in California, he contacted DIA officials and told them of his escape plan and the information he had brought with him, the report said. Dong then went into hiding “in plain sight” for about two weeks before disappearing according to the DIA’s plan. The fugitive was not known outside of DIA until the last three to four weeks.

On the same day, SpyTalk, a multimedia website that focuses on intelligence community news, also reported that Dong came to the United States in mid-February and contacted the Defense Intelligence Agency upon his arrival.

According to SpyTalk, Dong provided the Biden administration with information that led it to change its position on the Wuhan lab and to reconsider tracing the source of the virus that caused the pandemic.

On June 18, Chinese Communist Party media reported that Dong Jingwei hosted a counterintelligence symposium for the Ministry of Public Security, amid speculation that the CCP was dispelling rumors that Dong had fled the United States. The news, however, raised doubts about whether Dong was actually present, as there was no video or photo of him.

U.S. Newsweek (Newsweek) 23 said they reached a U.S. government official on the 22nd who said reports of Dong’s defection were inaccurate, but did not elaborate. A second U.S. government source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rumors were “absolutely untrue.

The report also said a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said Dong had actually attended the 16th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Security Council secretary with other member states on June 23.

U.S. government officials also told SpyTalk on June 22 that the news of Dong’s defection to the United States was completely false. The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the widespread reports about Tung were “inaccurate.

Asked why the Biden administration would come out and deny rumors of high-level defections, the official replied, “It’s more of a policy issue,” and said he would refer questions about the “spy story” to the White House.

A spokesman for the National Security Council did not respond, and SpyTalk did not respond to a request last week to the State Department for comment on whether Dong Jingwei defected to the U.S. via Hong Kong with his daughter, Dong Yang, in February.

Bizarrely, on June 18, top Communist Party leader Xi Jinping led the top officials of the Communist Party’s Central Committee to the Communist Party History Exhibition Hall to renew their oath of allegiance to the Party, vowing to “never betray the Party and keep its secrets.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) also published a rare article on the 19th, reviewing the case of Gu Shunzhang, an early CCP leader who defected, and warning the CCP that “never defecting from the Party is not just a vow”, which sparked public attention.

The rumors surrounding Dong Jingwei’s escape are circulating wildly on the eve of the centennial of the CCP’s founding, which is considered to be a matter of life and death for the CCP. It could even have an impact on the 20th Communist Party Congress, which is expected to be held by Xi Jinping.

However, after having contacted many people for interviews, it is still impossible to verify the authenticity of the “flight of Dong Jingwei”.