“The reports claim Chinese official Dong Jingwei, a vice-minister who took over responsibility for the country’s counter-intelligence three years ago, reportedly flew from Hong Kong to the United States in February with his daughter, reports South Asia news service ANI quoting SpyTalk, a newsletter covering U.S. intelligence, defense, and foreign affairs policy.
There has been no official comment from China, but according to SpyTalk, Dong reportedly gave the Biden administration information that caused it to change its stance on the Wuhan laboratory and to reconsider the potential the coronavirus that caused the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic came from the lab, rather than from nature.
If the rumors turn out to be true, Dong’s defection would be the highest level in the history of the People’s Republic of China.”
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/gordon-chang-chinese-spy-dong-jingwei-spy/2021/06/19/id/1025698/
Don’t hold your breath. Heavy odds that this is just one more b….s….. psyops rumor.
I wouldn’t trust Gordon Chang on political matters farther than I could throw him.
He said in his interview he THINKS it’s true. He never said yes this for sure.🤦🏻♂️
I found the tweet from Dr. Han Lianchao that started it all:
[Small news: Guo’an senior official Dong Jingwei defected] This gossip was heard from a friend. If it is true, it is really a big bomb. (Google translation)
The gossip was that the situation was discussed during the May meeting in Alaska between Chinese and US officials. Everything said beyond that by the US press, including RedState and Spy Talk, is speculation. That laundry list of info provided by Dong to DIA read like a right wing fever dream. The defection sounded plausible, but that list sounded straight out of 8kun.
From a Yahoo News reprint of an article from “The Telegraph”
Nicholas Eftimiades, a former CIA and Pentagon expert on China, told the SpyTalk newsletter, which first reported the alleged development, that Dr Han was “trusted for his integrity”. However, he said the suspected defection was “exactly what it is, a rumour”. He said such rumours about Chinese officials defecting “happen all the time” and were not necessarily correct.
Despite the official silence from China, the social media account of its top law enforcement agency, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, claimed Dong had spoken at a counter-espionage seminar on Friday, cautioning spies to watch out for “insiders” who collude with “anti-China” forces and for “people who bankroll their activities behind the scene”.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rumours-swirl-chinas-top-spycatcher-191833291.html
I’ve known Nick Eftimiades since the mid 90s at DIA. He’s sharp and a straight shooter. He already wrote his first book on Chinese intelligence services when I started working with him. He is still writing about them.
Another good article is from an Indian site called “The Print.” It includes a link to the statement from the Ministry of National Security about Dong’s recent appearance.
On the morning of June 18, 2021, Vice Minister Dong Jingwei of the Ministry of National Security presided over a symposium to study and implement the “Regulations on Anti-espionage Security Work” that came into effect on April 26 this year, and make arrangements for anti-rape and anti-espionage work. (Also Google translate, the reference to “anti-rape” is obviously lost in translation.)
https://theprint.in/world/did-a-top-chinese-intelligence-official-defect-to-us-rumours-grow-but-china-has-a-counter/681119/
That announcement could be a cover story. This whole incident could also be a CCP info op or CI op targeting Chinese defectors like Han Lianchao and organizations like his.
TTG, a number of the responses to Dr Han’s tweet comment on Dong being ‘cancelled’ from Baidu search results (see my comment below). This seems to have be taken as evidence of a fall from grace.
My reading of the laundry list is that RedState’s political bias may have led them to selectively list the goodies from the ones their source described, or perhaps the source did the selection, knowing what they’d want to hear. I can’t imagine the fallout won’t affect both sides of the political spectrum.
I thought I saw some comments about the Baidu cancellation. The CCP really screwed the pooch by not coordinating with Baidu about this while putting out that Dong was presiding over a symposium. Either they cover story or they’re intentionally trying to muddy the waters. I’m hoping for the screw up. We can use a major win against the CCP.
“Either their cover story was blown out of the water or…”
That’s what I was trying to say.
TTG,
It is one thing to have a Chinese search engine show up a result to allow “smart” guys like “b”, to say Dong’s defection is a fake and another to have him speak live.
As a former military intelligence officer, if one your colleagues was labeled a defector, would you parade him in front of cameras to show that the other side making the claims is full of shit? Or would you take the trouble to instruct your national co-opted search engines to come up with a result that says he spoke at some conference?
blue peacock
I would want to exhibit him, get the most out him and then hide him again. He is probably in a guarded hotel suite here in the DC area. I did that often until ready to re-settle him. The Biden Admin. and the Democrat Party will not want to do that. They want to make the US an analog of the PRC and they need to protect Chinese assets like Swalwell.
If Dong did not actually defect, I think it would be more effective to let the Western media and dissident emigre community continue tying themselves in knots for a while longer before parading Dong in front of the cameras. Neither removing his name from Baidu searches nor putting out that he chaired a conference on 18 June can be taken as fact. It could all be just more tea leaves for us to read.
Actually there are reports that their is no solid proof of Him at this symposium nor any of the people said to be their when I see him on camera then I will believe it but proof of him not defecting is still yet to surface if he was in China don’t you think the CCP would just show hes there to end all rumors or if this symposium actually took place and he was their don’t you think their would be footage. IDK something smells really fishy about this
Emmy winning former Senior news Correspondent Adam Housley tweeted on June 4th, 2021.
“Being told the increased pressure on China in recent days is due to a defector with intimate knowledge. In fact, Wray didn’t know right away because they wanted to make sure they got all they needed before telling him.”
https://twitter.com/adamhousley/status/1400670397473775617
Tweet June 19th, 2021
“I broke the initial story. It is legit. We have a few defectors. Dong is one I am told and I’m told the FBI had him first then gave him over to DIA.”
https://twitter.com/adamhousley/status/1406135077793193987
I understand the Chinese response is an article claiming he chaired a committee. Who knows.
Colonel Lang,
Wouldn’t the DIA hide him in a witness protection program for defectors? For his safety and our ability to utilize his information.
If there are many compromised traitors in the other intelligence agencies does this put the defector at risk of being returned to China? Or risk of being smeared in the press or not acknowledging he defected? It seems a determine Fifth Column could do a lot of damage. With the stakes so high.
Harlan Easley
Hiding him would not preclude having a show and tell for the press.
According to the SCMP, Dong spoke at a seminar in early June, however such a report doesn’t provide proof one way or the other. Absent a youtube video of Dong pledging allegiance to Xi on a recognisable date, the defection story still has legs.
I am not sure why the Chinese Government would remain mute on this subject.
All
It seems to me that DIA would make a statement of they did NOT have this guy. After all, the Chinese know if he is gone or not.
A little more circumstantial evidence supporting the veracity of the defection claim is offered by one of the sites linked to in the Daily Beast’s article on the Dong Jingwei story. I could not find the story on the English edition of “Vision Times” and the site is copy protected, but after some work a machine translation of the pertinent parts yielded the following:
https://www.secretchina.com/news/gb/2021/06/20/975622.html
The wiki on Vision Times says it is headquartered in NYC and is the largest Chinese language newspaper for the expat community in 17 countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzhongguo
Col. Lang,
Would you included the line about Hunters laptop, to prevent White House meddling?
– Eliot
Eliot
You mean publish the contents of the hard drive?
Col. Lang,
I was curious why they would admit to having the files from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Are they making an unspoken threat, to ensure the White House doesn’t get in their way?
Eliot
You can be sure that they have made several copies.
“Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.” – Sun Tzu
Barbara Ann, IMHO, the story of Gu Shuzhang is a warning to others that might have similar feelings.
Remember, like Gordan Chang and most intelligence experts, I have a fifty percent chance of being right..lol
PL is confident in the DIA, that is a good sign until the Bidenista’s start complaining about “White Privileges WiFi.”
How do you say “curve ball” in Chinese? Yeah, it’s that.
DougDiggler
Which of the 3 letter agencies do you work for?
Colonel,
Does the IDF (three letters) count? They’ve been toying around trying to ingratiate themselves to the CCP for a while it would seem, and given the representation of zionists in Zhou Bai Den’s camp, one can’t help but wonder. Their loyalty to the Republic is highly suspect, so hasbara being deployed to kick up dust is certainly a live possibility.
But considering the penetration of US institutions by both parties, why not an alliance of convenience?
JerseyJeffersonian: “They’ve been toying around trying to ingratiate themselves to the CCP for a while…”
Thanks, I needed a good laugh. Let me know how well that is working out for them,
For a long-long while. The Izzies and the PLA have been cooperating militarily since the 1980s.
Plus the Izzie defense industry has given Beijing expertise as well as jointly derived US/Israeli technology. The United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission states “Israel ranks second only to Russia as a weapons system provider to China and as a conduit for sophisticated cutting edge military technology”.
Leith,
You mean they sell China the technology they get from us. That doesn’t mean they are the tail wagging China’s National People’s Congress the way they do ours.
Tucker Carlson now joins Red State putting their money on Gordon Chang verifying the Chinese Defector:
……”Despite flippant dismissals from the former spook community and attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to deflect and spread misinformation (claiming Dong led a seminar in Beijing on Friday), tonight a top expert on China, Gordon Chang, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight saying that he believed that Dong has in fact defected, backing up RedState’s reporting……..”
Gordon Chang now hints there are two defectors according to his latest interview on Newsmax.
Gen McInerney weighs in: CIA and FBI were too dirty for the defecting Chinese spy Dong to trust.
https://freedomfirstnetwork.com/2021/06/gen-tom-mcinerney-heres-why-the-chinese-top-intel-head-defected-to-the-dia-not-the-cia-or-fbi
Article goes on to *speculate* about Obama administration transfer of Hammer and Scorecard software to China for their use in the US 2020 election, as well as reaching the conclusion “covid” was a Chinese direct act of war against the US.
New elements introduced into the current media Dong mix, trailing on McInerney’s lead to the article, but going well off on their own into new territory for their own reasons.
Feds: We Don’t Have Chinese Defector Dong Jingwei
https://www.spytalk.co/p/feds-we-dont-have-chinese-defector?r=2hta&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter
I’m sure the Democratic traitors will breath a sigh of relief.
Harlan Easley
When I see proof of life in China I will be quick to at so.
Photos of him will not clear up the mystery. Floating around the internet are too many false photographs that have been claimed to be of Dong but are actually of someone else. Not all of the footage match up, one incorrect one that continues to crop up was posted by Dr Han Lianchao. And even Tucker Carlson bought into the wrong pic by Han. That misidentified photo is just one of several online. So any actual new footage of Dong whether in China, or Washington, or Paris is going to be considered bogus and part of a conspiracy cover-up.
Actual image of Dong most likely = https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/06/18/10/44380013-9699221-image-a-1_1624008923050.jpg
In other news Guoanbu, the MSS, is reported to have been helping Assad in Idlib Province; and they are in Erbil to infiltrate the Barzanis. Maybe Dong is in the Middle East? Or maybe he defected to the Americans in Erbil instead of flying to California as Han Lianchao reported?
https://www.intelligenceonline.com/government-intelligence/2021/04/07/guoanbu-helps-damascus-in-idlib,109656223-art
https://www.intelligenceonline.com/government-intelligence/2021/06/21/china-s-guoanbu-gets-busy-in-erbil,109674299-eve
Colonel Lang,
Thanks for replying. I was pissed off reading the article and seeing a bunch of Blue Checks bragging on Twitter that they were right and us MAGA’s a bunch of dumbasses.
I consider them all cowards and traitors. They actively root against his defection. They may word it by sophistry but their inner desire is clear.
And like you said until “proof of life in China” would confirm one way or the other.
I’m just so disillusioned about our Woke Federal Government that I wouldn’t be surprised if they handed him back to China if he did defect.
Also, General Miley actually testified how Critical Race Theory was essential to understand the “White Rage” behind 01/06 riots to Congress today.
I’m to the point let Blue America go it alone on the World Stage. See how fast they get their asses handed to them.
Sorry for the Rant.
That admission by an unidentified State Department official just adds to the mystery. Like everything else about this, it can’t be taken as fact. I would expect either an official Glomar response or an announcement of a monumental US IC victory over China if we did have Dong. The absence of either of these does lean towards us not having him.
Another indicator brought up by Eftimiades is the continued discussion of Dong and the question of his status being allowed on the Chinese social media. This also leans towards us not having Dong. Chinese authorities is fully capable of totally squelching these discussions quickly if they wanted to do so. I’ve seen this capability immediately after the April 2001 Hainan Island incident when one of our EP-3s made an emergency landing after being struck by a J-8 fighter. This was the first live operation of my new cyber detachment. SPACECOM, who managed the cyber realm in those days, asked us if we could determine if China would use this incident to initiate a cyber attack or IO against us. We monitored the appropriate venues for 24 hours and watched as Chinese patriotic hackers began engaging with US “patriotic” hackers on what passed for social media at the time and acts of hactivism. Within hours, Chinese postings were being removed shortly after they appeared. The Chinese patriotic hackers began reigning in their members from further posting and acts of activism. It was obvious that China did not want to play this game. US hackers continued their activities for a while, but their activities died out once the Chinese left the field. If China was concerned about discussions, including doubts, of Dong’s status, the discussions would disappear.
TTG
OK. Let’s see a pic of him holding the day’s newspaper.
Why would he hold up a newspaper for us? If alive and still in China both he and Beijing would be happier with American confusion on the issue.
Exactly. Why stop us while we are busy playing ourselves.
True. Let’s see a pic of LTG Berrier holding his Dong. Then we’ll know we have him.
So the State official’s anonymity makes this a deniable denial. This after the Chinese unconfirmable confirmation of Dong at a possibly imaginary seminar. Darn I wish you spooks would be a little more straightforward so us regular folk can keep up.
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/the-debate-over-origins-of-sars-cov-2
Nobel laureate David Baltimore.
Fauci, Farrar, Daszak squelched any real investigation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology because their hands were not clean. Not only did they do that but used their big research dollars as a stick to bring virology researchers and the WHO in line. Now the CCP have blocked access to all the data. Why is the CCP given a pass? Shouldn’t they at least have to be held accountable to open access to the actual data sets?
Gordon Chang just tweeted that Dong Jingwei just appeared publicly in China.
https://twitter.com/GordonGChang/status/1408075230128521222