Rumors are circulating that a high-level Chinese government official has defected to the U.S. and offered information about the origins of the covid-19 pandemic. Yesterday on Washington Watch, Gordan Chang joined Tony Perkins to discuss the implications if such rumors are true. Reports are still unverified, but if Dong Jingwei defected, it would be the highest Chinese Communist Party official to defect to the U.S.
Dong Jingwei, China's vice minister of state security, has not been seen in China for quite some time and is rumored to have fled to the U.S. on February 10, taking with him intelligence about China's special weapons program, including its biological weapons program. Some are suggesting that Dong provided the United States with evidence that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan lab. This could explain why the Biden administration gave the intelligence community 90 days to conduct an investigation into the reports that the virus came from the Wuhan lab and not the local wet market.
The Trump administration's suggestion that the coronavirus may have leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was quickly shut down by the media last year. Yet, in recent weeks the possibility has been taken more seriously.
Dong's alleged intel covers more than just the origins of the coronavirus, though. Chang says that Dong may also have information on Communist Party payments to American businesspeople and American government officials. On the flip side, Dong may also know about U.S. government payments to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and payments from non-governmental actors, potentially incriminating some Americans as well regarding the outbreak of the coronavirus and revealing previously confidential details about U.S.-China relations.
Chang insists that if the rumors surrounding Dong are true, "he could blow up not only the Chinese political system, he could blow up the American one as well."
Beijing has dismissed all of these claims, but Chang noted that Dong has not appeared on television -- the easiest way for the CCP to squash the stories surrounding his disappearance. If the rumors are confirmed, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People's Republic of China, which could explain why the CCP might be anxious to shut such rumors down.
It is unclear what the Biden administration will do with this information if it is confirmed to be true. Chang speculates that the administration may try to downplay Dong's intel for political purposes. If it is true that Dong has information on U.S.-China business relations, it is likely that many CEOs and corporate boards in America will also be as anxious as the CCP to shut down rumors surrounding how their money is being spent in China.
Chang believes that the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a Chinese agency which handles intelligence and reports directly to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, has so successfully infiltrated the United States that its interests may dictate some of the Biden administration's policies regarding U.S.-China relations.
For now, this is all just speculation -- but what is unquestionably true is that the Chinese Communist Party is a harmful institution, both to its people and to the world. We don't have to look to rumors to see this -- it is evident in the way the Chinese government cracks down on freedom of the press in Hong Kong, imprisons human rights lawyers, forces churches to praise the Communist Party, and arbitrarily detains over one million Uyghur Muslims. The Chinese people deserve better than this, and the world must hold the CCP to a higher standard of behavior.
