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Peter Myers Digest: High-level Chinese defector reveals bioweapons programs

(1) High level Chinese defector reported in Daily Beast on June 17, co-published with SpyTalk(2) Vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei, defected to USA - Spytalk(3) Redstate: China defector was top Counterintelligence Official, revealed Wuhan Lab biowar research(4) Chinese language blogs claim that Dong defected in mid-February(5) Dong Jingwei informed US officials about Wuhan biowar research, & Covid Lab Leak - Daily Mail(6) Top Chinese official may have DEFECTED to US with info on Wuhan lab - The Sun (Murdoch)(7) NYT, WaPo, Reuters, BBC, Int. Business Times fail to report the story(8) DIA kept Defector clandestine because there are Chinese spies inside FBI, CIA, & State Dept(9) State Dept, CIA tried to stop Wuhan Lab Probe - Pompeo(10) PLA defector says Chinese has penetrated US gov't, wary of cooperating with CIA (Sept 2020)(1) High level Chinese defector reported in Daily Beast on June 17, co-published with SpyTalkDefector Claiming Chinese Military Responsible for COVID-19 Identified as Top Counterintelligence Officialhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/rumors-of-us-secretly-harboring-top-china-official-dong-jingwei-swirlRumors of U.S. Secretly Harboring Top China Official SwirlReports that a top Chinese official defected to the U.S. have swept Chinese-language media this week. The alleged reason? Sharing sensitive information about COVID-19 origins.SpyTalkJeff SteinMatthew BrazilUpdated Jun. 17, 2021 7:17PM ET / Published Jun. 17, 2021 3:25PM ETChinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.Dong Jingwei supposedly gave the U.S. information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology that changed the stance of the Biden administration concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.Dong’s defection was raised by Chinese officials last March at the Sino-American summit in Alaska, according to Dr. Han Lianchao, a former Chinese foreign ministry official before defecting after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In a Wednesday tweet, Han, citing an unnamed source, alleged that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Communist Party foreign affairs boss Yang Jiechi demanded that the Americans return Dong, and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused.Former Pentagon, State Department, and CIA expert Nicholas Eftimiades, author of Chinese Espionage: Operations and Tactics, called the report "exactly what it is, a rumor. It happens all the time" in the information warfare between Beijing and anti-communist overseas Chinese. But he called Dr. Han, a pro-democracy activist with the Washington, D.C.-based Citizen Power Initiative for China group, "a straight shooter, not known to exaggerate in any way or form… trusted for his integrity."Mollie Saltskog, a senior intelligence analyst with The Soufan Group who earned a master’s degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, also urged caution, saying the rumors of defections surface regularly. "While significant and certainly useful for our intelligence efforts," she added, "one high-level defection will not drastically change our understanding or approach to China. In short, if true, this is potentially significant but not a game changer."The State Department did not respond to a request for comment by press time. It typically does not comment on defectors. A half dozen experts on Chinese intelligence queried by SpyTalk said they had no information to share on Dong’s alleged defection.Chinese-language press stories also claim that Dong’s daughter Yang defected with him from Hong Kong on or about Feb. 10. She is allegedly the former spouse of a senior Alibaba executive, Jiang Fan, who heads TMall, China’s big Amazon-like business.Without naming Dong, the pro-Trump web site Red State reported June 4 on a high-level defection from China, saying the Defense Intelligence Agency had received information from him that Beijing is covering up biological warfare research at the Wuhan lab, and advanced its story to question the integrity of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases."Sources say the level of confidence in the defector’s information is what has led to a sudden crisis of confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) personnel detailed to DIA have corroborated very technical details of information provided by the defector," it said.According to the authoritative Paris-based newsletter Intelligence Online, Dong is "close to" Chinese President Xi Jinping. "He previously headed the Guoanbu in the region of Hebei, which has produced many of Xi's securocrats," the publication reported in 2018. Back in 2010, IO reported that Dong carried out orders from superiors in Beijing to arrest "four Japanese employees of the Fujita Corporation who were filming in a forbidden military zone." The move was seen at the time as a power play by State Security against then-President Hu Jintao.Meanwhile, the Chinese State Council’s official web page listing the top personnel in the Ministry of State Security no longer lists any vice ministers working under MSS minister Chen Wenqing. Under "personnel developments," it notes the corruption investigation against another former vice minister, Ma Jian, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2018. The vice minister section is blank.Co-published with SpyTalk, where Jeff Stein leads an all-star team of veteran investigative reporters, writers, and subject-matter experts who will take you behind the scenes of the national security state. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website.(2) Vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei, defected to USA - Spytalkhttps://www.spytalk.co/p/high-level-chinese-defection-rumoredHigh-level Chinese Defection RumoredChinese State Security Vice Minister Dong Jingwei would be highest-level defector in the history of the People's Republic.Matthew Brazil and Jeff SteinJune 17, 2021Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei (???) defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.Dong Jingwei supposedly gave the U.S. information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology that changed the stance of the Biden Administration concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.Spy CatcherDong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.Dong’s defection was raised by Chinese officials last March at the Sino-American summit in Alaska, according to Dr. Han Lianchao, a former Chinese foreign ministry official who defected after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In a tweet on Wednesday, Han, citing an unnamed source, alleged that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Communist Party foreign affairs boss Yang Jiechi demanded that the Americans return Dong and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused.Former Pentagon, State Department and CIA expert Nicholas Eftimiades, author of Chinese Espionage: Operations and Tactics, called the report "exactly what it is, a rumor. It happens all the time" in the information warfare between Beijing and anti-communist overseas Chinese. But he called Dr. Han, a pro-democracy activist with the Washington, D.C.-based Citizen Power Initiative for China group, "a straight shooter, not known to exaggerate in any way or form...trusted for his integrity."Mollie Saltskog, a senior intelligence analyst with The Soufan Group, who earned a master’s degree in global affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, also urged caution, saying unconfirmed reports of defections surface regularly. And more: "While significant and certainly useful for our intelligence efforts," she added, "one high-level defection will not drastically change our understanding or approach to China. In short, if true, this is potentially significant but not a game-changer."The U.S.-China spy war has intensified in recent years. Last year former CIA officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was charged with espionage on Beijing’s behalf. In 2020, another former CIA officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, was sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to give classified information to China. The year before, another former CIA officer, Kevin Patrick Mallory, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for spying for China, according to a New York Times roundup. Starting in 2010, Beijing "systematically dismantled C.I.A. spying operations in the country, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward," the Times reported in 2017.The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on Dong’s alleged defection by press time. It typically does not comment on defectors. A half dozen experts on Chinese intelligence queried by SpyTalk said they had no information to share on Dong’s alleged defection.Chinese-language press stories also claim that Dong’s daughter Yang defected with him from Hong Kong on or about Feb. 10. She is allegedly the former spouse of a senior Alibaba Group executive, Jiang Fan, who heads up TMall, China’s big Amazon-like business. Alibaba founder Jack Ma came under fire from Beijing last fall after he criticized Chinese regulators and banks in a public forum in Shanghai. Authorities suspended a planned blockbuster $37 billion IPO for Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Group.Corruption is rife in China’s state-directed economy, and it may have washed up on Dong. "He worked closely with Zhang Yue, who's now serving 15 years imprisonment for corruption," Dr. Han said. "Zhang was a confidant of Ma Jian, former MSS executive vice minister, who is also in prison for corruption."Dong "was last seen in public in September 2020," Han said. His photos have been deleted by the Chinese search engine Baidu, according to some Chinese language news reports abroad.Wuhan AgainWithout naming Dong, the pro-Trump web site Red State reported June 4 on a high-level defection from China, saying the Defense Intelligence Agency had received information from him that Beijing is covering up biological warfare research at the Wuhan lab, and advanced its story to question the integrity of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Sources say the level of confidence in the defector’s information is what has led to a sudden crisis of confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) personnel detailed to DIA have corroborated very technical details of information provided by the defector," it said.According to the authoritative Paris-based newsletter Intelligence Online, Dong is "close to" Chinese President Xi Jinping. "He previously headed the Guoanbu in the region of Hebei, which has produced many of Xi's securocrats," the publication reported in 2018. Back in 2010, IO reported that Dong carried out orders from superiors in Beijing to arrest "four Japanese employees of the Fujita Corporation who were filming in a forbidden military zone." The move was seen at the time as a power play by State Security against then-President Hu Jintao.Meanwhile, the Chinese State Council’s official web page listing the top personnel in the Ministry of State Security no longer lists any vice ministers working under MSS minister Chen Wenqing. Under "personnel developments" it notes the corruption investigation against another former vice minister, Ma Jian, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2018. The vice minister section is blank.SpyTalk Conributing Editor Matthew Brazil is the co-author, with Peter Mattis, of Chinese Communist Espionage, An Intelligence Primer. SpyTalk Editor-in-Chief Jeff Stein earned an M.A. in China Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.(3) Redstate: China defector was top Counterintelligence Official, revealed Wuhan Lab biowar researchhttps://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2021/06/17/breaking-chinese-defector-confirmed-as-top-counterintelligence-official-n398374BREAKING: Chinese Defector's Identity Confirmed, Was Top Counterintelligence OfficialBy Jennifer Van Laar | Jun 17, 2021 8:00 PM ETWe now know the name of the Chinese defector who has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for a few months and what his position within the Chinese military and government was, among other details.Matthew Brazil and Jeff Stein at Spy Talk reported on the "rumor," and gave the name and background of the rumored defector:Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter are abuzz this week with rumors that a vice minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei (???) defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his daughter, Dong Yang.Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.RedState’s sources confirmed that the defector is, in fact, Dong, that he was in charge of counterintelligence efforts in China, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February, allegedly to visit his daughter at a university in California. When Dong landed in California he contacted DIA officials and told them about his plans to defect and the information he’d brought with him. Dong then "hid in plain sight" for about two weeks before disappearing into DIA custody.According to Spy Talk, Dong’s name came up during the Sino-American Summit held in Alaska in March 2021:In a tweet on Wednesday, Han [Dr. Han Lianchao, a Chinese defector], citing an unnamed source, alleged that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Communist Party foreign affairs boss Yang Jiechi demanded that the Americans return Dong and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken refused.RedState’s sources say that Chinese officials did demand that the United States return Dong, but Blinken didn’t exactly refuse; at that time Blinken wasn’t aware that Dong was with the US government, the sources say, and told China that the US didn’t have Dong.It’s only in the last three to four weeks that anyone outside DIA knew about the defector, according to RedState’s sources. Prior to that time, DIA was vetting the information provided and confronting Langley officials with what they’d learned without divulging the source.Experts quoted in the Spy Talk piece essentially say that the defection is just a rumor and that rumors happen all the time, but that if it’s true it’s a big deal but "not game-changing." Based on conversations with sources familiar with the information Dong has already provided and its quantity and reliability, that’s simply not the case. Not only does Dong have detailed information about China’s special weapons systems, the Chinese military’s operation of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and the Chinese government’s assets and sources within the United States; Dong has extremely embarrassing and damaging information about our intelligence community and government officials in the "terabytes of data" he’s provided to the DIA.Some of the information provided by Dong was reported on by the Washington Free Beacon earlier this week:Hundreds of Chinese nationals are the subject of a federal probe after law enforcement officials flagged their travel at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese nationals returned to the United States earlier than expected in January 2020, often having modified their travel plans.The episode is recounted in an internal report that circulated among various national security and law enforcement agencies on June 3. That report surmises that the Chinese students returned to the United States earlier than expected in order to avoid future travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."The team examined 58,000 inbound Chinese F/J visa holders in the [Passenger Name Record] database and identified 396 individuals whose return travel was [scheduled] after January 2020 but had returned in January 2020," the report reads.The Free Beacon reports that U.S. intelligence officials haven’t come to a conclusion about whether or not the students being investigated were spies, but RedState is told that whether or not one wants to use the term "spy," those students were sent back to the United States with specific information-gathering directives with the purpose of helping Beijing understand the US government’s response to the pandemic at a much deeper level than they could through publicly-available documents. Those students (spies) were charged with reporting back on public policy changes, economic response and damage, impacts on the healthcare system (equipment/hospital bed shortages, etc), supply chain impacts (including how long it took things like semiconductors from China to reach the United States), civil unrest, and more.In addition, Dong has provided DIA with the following information:Early pathogenic studies of the virus we now know as SARS-CoV-2Models of predicted COVID-19 spread and damage to the US and the worldFinancial records detailing which exact organizations and governments funded the research on SARS-CoV-2 and other biological warfare researchNames of US citizens who provide intel to ChinaNames of Chinese spies working in the US or attending US universitiesFinancial records showing US businessmen and public officials who’ve received money from the Chinese governmentDetails of meetings US government officials had (perhaps unwittingly) with Chinese spies and members of Russia’s SVRHow the Chinese government gained access to a CIA communications system, leading to the death of dozens of Chinese people who were working with the CIADong also has provided DIA with copies of the contents of the hard drive on Hunter Biden’s laptop, showing the information the Chinese government has about Hunter’s pornography problem and about his (and Joe’s) business dealings with Chinese entities. Some of the files on Dong has provided shine a light on just how it was that the sale of Henniges Automotive (and their stealth technology) to Chinese military manufacturer AVIC Auto was approved.Again, according to sources, Dong told DIA debriefers that at least a third of Chinese students attending US universities are PLA assets or part of the Thousand Talents Plan and that many of the students are here under pseudonyms. One reason for using pseudonyms is that many of these students are the children of high-ranking military and party leaders.As we initially reported, DIA has high confidence in the veracity of Dong’s claims. The fact that since our original report, which was pooh-poohed by Langley apologists, the New York Times published a rare interview with Dr. Shi Zhengli (the WIV "Bat Woman"), ABC News has started an "investigation" into COVID-19 origins, and now the actual name of the defector has been published in an anti-Trump, CIA-friendly blog, demonstrates what sources told RedState today: "This defector has the rest of the intelligence community and the LEO community scared sh**less."(4) Chinese language blogs claim that Dong defected in mid-Februaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dong_JingweiDong JingweiVice Minister of State SecurityIncumbentAssumed officeApril 2018President	Xi JinpingMinister	Chen WenqingDirector of the Political Departmentof the Ministry of State SecurityIn officeApril 2017 – April 2018Dong Jingwei (traditional Chinese: ???; born November 18, 1963) is a Chinese politician who has served as Vice Minister of State Security, and head of counterintelligence for the Chinese Ministry of State Security (also known as the MSS or Guoanbu) since 2018. In June 2021, unconfirmed reports surfaced alleging his defection to the United States.[1]Intelligence careerOn April 1st, 2017, Dong became Director of the Political Department of the Ministry of State Security (Bureau No. 3). Almost exactly a year later it emerged he that was appointed Vice Minister of State Security of the People's Republic of China in late April 2018.[6][7][8] Deng served as a representative at the 18th and 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and as a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.[9] In March 2019, he was elected as the Vice President of the Eighth Council of the Chinese Law Society.[9]In 2018, Intelligence Online reported that Dong was "close to" President Xi Jinping, saying "he previously headed the Guoanbu in the region of Hebei, a province which has produced many of Xi's securocrats.[10]Dong's current role is unclear, in late 2020 his name was removed from the State Council’s official website, leaving the list of deputies to Minister of State Security Chen Wenqing blank[11], while the 2018 post announcing his appointment in was later deleted as well.[7] On June 17th, 2021, his Baidu Baike biographical encyclopedia entry, and biography on the Chinese Law Society were removed.[9]Defection rumorsIn June 2021, rumors began to surface on Chinese language blogs[2] online suggesting Dong had defected in mid-February, flying from Hong Kong to the United States with his adult daughter, Dong Yang. The rumors claimed Dong had provided key information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology that changed the stance of the Biden Administration concerning the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] On June 4th, former Fox News reporter Adam Housely reported that increased pressure on China in recent days was the result of a "defector with intimate knowledge". The following day Conservative news outlet RedState ran a story based on Housely's report about a high-level defection from China, claiming that the Defense Intelligence Agency had received information from a defector that Beijing is covering up biological warfare research at the Wuhan lab.[12] Neither report mentioned Dong by name.A later report by The Daily Beast and U.S. intelligence community blog SpyCast connected Dong to the allegations, citing Dr. Han Lianchao, a former Chinese foreign ministry official who defected to the United States following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Han said Dong’s defection was mentioned by Chinese officials during the Sino-American summit in Alaska.[13] Citing an unnamed source, he alleged that China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and Communist Party foreign secretary Yang Jiechi had demanded Dong’s return.[13][1] Speaking to The Daily Beast and SpyTalk on June 17, former U.S. intelligence officer Nicholas Eftimiades described the report as "exactly what it is, a rumor. It happens all the time", but called Han "a straight shooter, not known to exaggerate in any way or form… trusted for his integrity."[1] Mollie Saltskog of The Soufan Group urged caution, saying the rumors of defections surface regularly. "In short, if true, this is potentially significant but not a game changer."[1] By a significant margin, a person of Dong's political stature would be the highest level defection in the history of the People’s Republic of China.[1] As of yet, most claims remain largely unsubstantiated.In an apparent response on June 18th, the South China Morning Post suddenly released one of the first English language articles to ever mention Dong. While making no mention of the ongoing rumors of his disappearance, the article quotes him as having recently urged the country’s intelligence officers to "step up their efforts to hunt down foreign agents and insiders who collude with "anti-China" forces." Later in the report, mention is made of a "22-year-old journalism student, identified only by his surname Tian, [who has] been accused of providing information to an unnamed Western country to smear China."[14] Said the SCMP, "Tian faced a closed-door trial last November but the result of the trial has yet to be announced."[14] [...]This page was last edited on 18 June 2021, at 16:03 (UTC).(5) Dong Jingwei informed US officials about Wuhan biowar research, & Covid Lab Leak - Daily Mailhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9699221/Has-Chinese-official-defected-Rumors-swirl-diplomat-told-DC-Wuhan-lab.htmlHas a top Chinese official defected to the US with Wuhan lab secrets? Rumors swirl vice minister of State Security fled Beijing in February with information that sparked Biden u-turn on COVID originsDong Jingwei is believed to have fled to the US with his daughter on February 10He was a career spy and was recently promoted as chief of counter-intelligenceIf report confirmed - he is highest-level defector in history of People's RepublicDong reportedly gave evidence on Wuhan lab that prompted Biden's about-faceSources claim Chinese officials demanded Dong's return at summit in AlaskaBy HARRIET ALEXANDER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ROSS IBBETSON FOR MAILONLINEPUBLISHED: 11:48 AEST, 18 June 2021 | UPDATED: 23:54 AEST, 18 June 2021A high-ranking Chinese spy chief is rumoured to have defected to the United States and given Washington evidence on the Wuhan lab which prompted Joe Biden's about-face on the coronavirus leak theory.Dong Jingwei is believed to have fled to the US with his daughter Dong Yang on February 10, according to Spy Talk.He made a name in China's secret service, known as Guoanbu, and was head of counter-intelligence, or spy-catching, after being promoted to the post of vice minister in April 2018.If the reports are true, Dong is the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.It is claimed that he informed US officials about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where Covid-19 may have emerged, causing Biden to look seriously at the lab leak theory - long-derided as an erroneous fascination of the Trump administration.Dong has been pictured online, and though not all of the pictures match up, one that continues to crop up was posted by Dr Han Lianchao, a former Chinese foreign ministry official who defected after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.Han, described by US officials as a 'straight-shooter,' claims that Beijing dispatched envoys to meet with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in March to discuss handing Dong back to them.Han claims the Communist Party's top brass demanded Dong be returned to them at the highly-contentious meeting in Alaska.Blinken refused, Han said.'He worked closely with Zhang Yue, who's now serving 15 years imprisonment for corruption,' Han said.'Zhang was a confidant of Ma Jian, former MSS executive vice minister, who is also in prison for corruption.'Dong 'was last seen in public in September 2020,' Han claimed.His photos have been deleted by the Chinese search engine Baidu, according to some Chinese language news reports abroad.Han's claim was impossible to verify, but he was known as 'a straight shooter, not known to exaggerate in any way or form, trusted for his integrity,' according to Nicholas Eftimiades, a former Pentagon, State Department and CIA expert.But Eftimiades, a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, warned that the report should be seen for 'exactly what it is, a rumor.'He added that such rumors 'happen all the time'.Mollie Saltskog, a senior intelligence analyst with The Soufan Group, agreed, saying that unconfirmed reports of defections surface regularly.'While significant and certainly useful for our intelligence efforts, one high-level defection will not drastically change our understanding or approach to China,' she told Spy Talk.'In short, if true, this is potentially significant but not a game-changer.'The conservative website Red State reported that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had received information from him that Beijing is covering up biological warfare research at the Wuhan lab.Dr Anthony Fauci, Biden's chief medical advisor and a current target of Republican fury, has defended investing U.S. funds in the Wuhan lab, insisting that their research into coronaviruses was essential and it would be 'a dereliction of duty' not to support their work.Red State reported that Dong's defection pushed U.S. officials to question Fauci's approach.'Sources say the level of confidence in the defector's information is what has led to a sudden crisis of confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) personnel detailed to DIA have corroborated very technical details of information provided by the defector,' it said.Spy Talk also quoted the Paris-based newsletter Intelligence Online as reporting that Dong is 'close to' Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.'He previously headed the Guoanbu (security ministry) in the region of Hebei, which has produced many of Xi's securocrats,' the publication reported in 2018.Dong's defection, if it happened, may never be confirmed.But it does come as the Biden administration, following scientific consensus, makes a notable shift in its thinking about the 'lab leak' theory.Last year scientists were downplaying the theory, insisting that it was far more likely that the COVID-19 virus passed from animals to humans.Now scientists believe that it may indeed be true.On January 15 the State Department published a fact sheet about COVID-19, which said that 'circumstantial' evidence suggested a lab leak theory was possible.Biden on May 26 ordered intelligence agencies to investigate the two competing ideas about the origins of the pandemic - evolved naturally and passed from animals to humans, or released from a laboratory. He gave them 90 days to report back. [...]Fauci, the nation's top public health expert, is now facing scrutiny over what he knew, when - and whether he was always straight with the public.His critics, mainly Republicans, accuse him of downplaying the 'lab leak' theory because it was promoted heavily by Donald Trump.The critics also argue that Fauci did not want to admit at the time that U.S. taxpayers' money was spent on the Wuhan lab.He has since confirmed that $820,000 was given to the lab, over six years, to fund their research into coronaviruses.Fauci justified the spending when quizzed on it before Congress last month, insisting that it was vital to understand coronaviruses coming from bats, and the bats were in China.He said it would have been a dereliction of duty not to support the scientific research.Fauci also insisted that the grants were not being used on 'gain of function' research, whereby viruses are made more transmissible or deadly, to understand their capabilities.He said the scientific studies published thanks to U.S. funding bore no evidence of 'gain of function' research.But he admitted that he had no way of knowing if the Wuhan lab was carrying out experiments in secret.Meanwhile, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, has said Fauci told world leaders in the spring of 2020 that the coronavirus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.U.S. researchers around that time still were considering whether the virus came from a lab break, and Fauci told the health leaders gathered that the newly identified strain of the coronavirus 'looked unusual,' according to Gottlieb.The disclosure from the former FDA chief comes as an increasing number of mainstream scientists and media figures no longer are parroting the line from the Chinese Communist Party that the virus came from a bat.Now, Gottlieb says Fauci last year at least considered that COVID-19 could have come from a lab - before closing ranks around the idea that it occurred naturally.Gottlieb, who served under Trump, said a former senior member of the Trump administration told him at the time of Fauci's 2020 talk.Gottlieb said he'd recently reconfirmed with that person that Fauci had given the talk.'I think early on, when they looked at the strain, they had suspicions,' Gottlieb recalled on CBS Face the Nation, speaking of U.S. scientists.'And it takes time to do that analysis, and that dispelled some of those suspicions,' he added.Additionally, Gottlieb said it was a mistake to only look at the virus from a scientific perspective: It also needs to be examined from a national security lens, he said.'A scientific mindset looks at the virus and the virus' behavior and draws a conclusion,' he said.'A national security assessment looks at that and then looks at the behavior of the Chinese government, the behavior of the lab, other evidence around the lab - including the infections we now know took place - and that changes the overall assessment,' he said.(6) Top Chinese official may have DEFECTED to US with info on Wuhan lab - The Sun (Murdoch)https://www.the-sun.com/news/3107340/top-chinese-official-may-have-defected-to-us-with-wuhan-info/COVID 'CONVERT' Top Chinese official may have DEFECTED to US with info on Wuhan labM.L. Nestel1:36 ET, Jun 18 2021Updated: 2:03 ET, Jun 18 2021RUMORS are swirling that a high-ranking Chinese "spy catcher" and his daughter defected to the US and has been unveiling secrets about the Wuhan lab and its purported source of the Covid-19 outbreak.Vice Minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei, is believed to have fled the Communist country by jetting from Hong Kong to the US along with his daughter, Dong Yang.If true, Jingwei, who served as a prestigious counterintelligence head at China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu - would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China, according to Spy Talk which broke the story citing "Chinese-language anti-communist media and Twitter outlets."The news of the father and daughter’s escape from China went public back in March during the Sino-American summit in Alaska.Former Chinese foreign ministry official Dr. Han Lianchao, who defected after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, claimed in a tweet on Wednesday, that Chinese senior diplomats pressed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to return Dong.Blinken reportedly refused.If it's confirmed, Vice Minister of State Security Dong Jingwei would be the highest level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China [...](7) NYT, WaPo, Reuters, BBC, Int. Business Times fail to report the storyby Peter Myers, June 19, 2021Today at 11.40am Australian Eastern Standard Time, I searched the MSM for "Dong Jingwei", in Google, without specifying any time, to see if they covered the story of his defection.The Daily Mail reported it 23 hours earlier, Times of India 22 hours earlier, Murdoch's Sun 20 hours earlier.But  NYT, WaPo, Reuters, BBC, and Int. Business Times failed to report the story. Perhaps they deemed it "unfit to print"?Here are the searches & results:"Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.nytimes.com/No results containing all your search terms were found.Your search - "Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.nytimes.com/ - did not match any documents."Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.washingtonpost.com/No results containing all your search terms were found.Your search - "Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.washingtonpost.com/ - did not match any documents."Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.reuters.com/No results found for "Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.reuters.com/.No results containing all your search terms were found.Your search - "Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news - did not match any documents.No results containing all your search terms were found.Your search - "Dong Jingwei" site:https://www.ibtimes.com/ - did not match any documents.(8) DIA kept Defector clandestine because there are Chinese spies inside FBI, CIA, & State Depthttps://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2021/06/04/exclusive-high-ranking-chinese-defector-has-direct-knowledge-of-several-chinese-special-weapons-programs-n391238EXCLUSIVE: High-Ranking Chinese Defector Has 'Direct Knowledge' of Several Chinese Special Weapons ProgramsBy Jennifer Van Laar | Jun 04, 2021 2:23 PM ETA person believed to be among the highest-ranking defectors ever to the United States from the People’s Republic of China has been working with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for months, sources inside the intelligence community have told RedState on condition of anonymity. The defector has direct knowledge of special weapons programs in China, including bioweapons programs, those sources say.The information provided to RedState corroborates and clarifies Thursday evening’s reporting by journalist Adam Housley.RedState’s sources say that’s partially true. FBI Director Christopher Wray was "ambushed" with the information, they say, and Langley was also unaware. Sources say DIA leadership kept the defector within their Clandestine Services network to prevent Langley and the State Department from accessing the person, whose existence was kept from other agencies because DIA leadership believes there are Chinese spies or sources inside the FBI, CIA, and several other federal agencies.More information will be published as it becomes available to RedState.UPDATE 12:30 PM PDT, June 4, 2021Sources tell RedState the defector has been with the DIA for three months and that he has provided an extensive, technically detailed debrief to US officials. In DIA’s assessment, the information provided by the defector is legitimate. Sources say the level of confidence in the defector’s information is what has led to a sudden crisis of confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) personnel detailed to DIA have corroborated very technical details of information provided by the defector.(NOTE: Several former CIA officers have questioned the veracity of this story or termed it an outright fabrication. We are aware of those comments and stand by our sources.)(9) State Dept, CIA tried to stop Wuhan Lab Probe - Pompeohttps://www.theepochtimes.com/pompeo-confirms-intense-opposition-to-wuhan-lab-probe-within-state-department-intelligence-bureaucracies_3843740.htmlPompeo Confirms Intense Opposition to Wuhan Lab Probe From State Department, Intelligence BureaucraciesBY MARK TAPSCOTT June 3, 2021 Updated: June 4, 2021Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed to The Epoch Times on June 3 that his efforts to get to the bottom of how the CCP virus—also known as the novel coronavirus—spread from China to the United States met with sustained opposition within the U.S. government.Asked about revelations in a June 3 Vanity Fair report that key officials deep within the State Department sought to keep the public from knowing that U.S. funds had supported gain-of-function research at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Pompeo described a "contentious battle."That research, which focused on techniques for reconfiguring naturally occurring viruses to make them more virulent and transmissible to humans, was partially funded as far back as 2012 with U.S. tax dollars through the National Institutes of Health and a nonprofit foundation known as the EcoHealth Alliance.The Vanity Fair analysis "found that conflicts of interest, stemming in part from large government grants supporting controversial virology research, hampered the U.S. investigation into COVID-19's origin at every step.""In one State Department meeting, officials seeking to demand transparency from the Chinese government say they were explicitly told by colleagues not to explore the Wuhan Institute of Virology's gain-of-function research, because it would bring unwelcome attention to U.S. government funding of it," the article reads.China has insisted since the virus first appeared in late 2019 that it had spread from bats to humans via an open-air meat market in Wuhan. Some government and public health officials, private sector scientists, and investigative journalists, however, have said since early in 2020 that there's substantial evidence that the virus spread somehow from the WIV.Then-President Donald Trump and Pompeo, as well as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), publicly noted the existence of such evidence in April 2020 and called on Chinese officials to allow independent investigators to access the WIV and its records. China refused to do so.After the November 2020 election, Pompeo pushed within the State Department and the Trump administration for public release of as much evidence as possible.He issued a Jan. 15 statement that includes a significant disclosure, that WIV researchers appeared to have suffered virus symptoms months before the disease spread throughout China and to other countries, including the United States.The statement also notes the gain-of-function research taking place at WIV and asks whether U.S. funding may have been diverted to secret Chinese military projects at the WIV.But even getting that statement out was a struggle, Pompeo told The Epoch Times on June 3."I became aware at the end of 2020 that we now had an increased level of confidence in the datapoints that supported what we put out in the middle of January. The clock was clearly running, and I was fighting very hard inside the State Department and even more broadly," he said.A major roadblock was the fact that significant portions of the evidence were held by intelligence agencies that opposed their public release."There were places outside of the State Department that owned the dataset inside the intelligence community, so we were banging away to get them to give us as much space to write as much as we possibly could," Pompeo said."We were drafting language that protected classified things that needed to be protected but we wanted to make sure that we got this information out in the public space."The former secretary of state said he viewed it as important at the time, and continues today to say that the American people should know all the facts, and the Chinese government should be held accountable if the virus did escape from the WIV."There were two reasons for that. One, it was a matter of transparency and, two, we wanted the Chinese Communist Party to have to explain what we knew as well, so we had a very high degree of certainty around what we did," Pompeo said. "The statement was very carefully crafted, but it is unambiguous about what it said."A former senior State Department official with direct knowledge of these matters, who spoke on background, told The Epoch Times that Pompeo made clear to everybody involved in the State Department's investigation of the source of the virus that they were to pursue facts wherever they led.When told of internal opposition to the effort, the former senior official said that Pompeo responded with a salty aphorism reflective of his Army career."He said, 'Screw them and tell them the secretary of state said do it.' And he also said something that's very, very important. He said: 'I don't care what conclusion you guys dig out. It may be something we like to hear, politically, or something we don't like to hear, but I want the truth.' That was exactly the attitude throughout the whole investigation this group was doing."Congressional correspondent Mark Tapscott may be reached at mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc.(10) PLA defector says Chinese has penetrated US gov't, wary of cooperating with CIA (Sept 2020)https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/sep/16/second-china-defector-gives-biological-weapons-inf/Second China defector gives biological weapons information (Sept 2020)By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 16, 2020U.S. intelligence agencies recently increased their knowledge of China's covert biological weapons program with the help of a defector from the People's Liberation Army, according to people familiar with the incident.The defector escaped from China and traveled to Europe, where he is under the protection of a European government security service, according to the sources. The PLA defector believes that Chinese intelligence has penetrated the U.S. government and is therefore wary of cooperating with the CIA and other Western spy agencies.Still, the defector has provided some information about China's biological arms program that has reached the U.S. government. No other details of the defection could be learned.However, the defector is the second person from China to provide information about Chinese biological research with potential weapons applications.Chinese virologist Yan Li-meng fled to the United States from Hong Kong this spring and charged in news interviews that the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was manufactured in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and appears to be designed from two viruses stored in a PLA laboratory.