A controversy between China and America over the image of a senior official who escaped with the secrets of the “Wuhan” laboratory

Chinese officials revealed a set of photos of the sixteenth meeting of the Security Council of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was held on June 23.

The pictures circulated by Chinese officials included a large Chinese figure that American media and personalities claimed to have escaped to America a few days ago.
And the “Daily Beast” newspaper, quoting Chinese-language opposition media, reported that China’s Vice Minister of State Security, Dong Jingwei, fled with his daughter to the United States.

Although the photos were widely circulated among Chinese officials, showing Jingwei present at the meeting, some media outlets denied the news.

According to the news published by the British newspaper “Daily Mail”, the circulating pictures raised allegations by some American authorities that China modified the picture to make it appear that Dong attended the meeting to dispel rumors of his defection and flight to America.

The “Daily Mail” quoted the allegations of the Chinese-American businessman, Solomon Yu, a member of the National Congress of the Republican Party in the United States, who indicated that the photo circulated among Chinese officials was edited, and he photographed his face and put it in the photo to show the validity of his claim.

Although photos of the meeting were circulated among a number of Chinese officials, Solomon tweeted on his Twitter page, stressing that the CIA is still keeping the Chinese official and that he is in protective custody, and he continued sarcastically: “I was told I was also in the meeting.”

9" of the video is a still photo, the most critical and only frame to show #DongJingwei was in the meeting, can easily be PS. 13"-15" of the video is moving, but can be chopped from elsewhere. That's my conclusion about this video by #CCP https://t.co/IIrYdI9zbq pic.twitter.com/O7vI5vQChT

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) June 24, 2021

According to American media, the Chinese official left his country with his daughter in mid-February with information related to the Wuhan Institute, to Washington.

In the same context, the former expert in the CIA, Nicholas Efthymiades, described these reports as falling within the framework of rumors only, noting that “this regularly occurs within the framework of the media war between Beijing and the Chinese opposition and Washington.”

DIA still has #DongJingwei in its protective custody & he is still singing to celebrate #CCP 100th birthday. This picture is photoshopped. now I was told that I was there too. https://t.co/3YoTZuCyI2 pic.twitter.com/YmKeoOwkei

— Solomon Yue (@SolomonYue) June 24, 2021

In this regard, Molly Saltskog, senior intelligence analyst at the Sovan Group, said that caution should be exercised: “Rumors of defections regularly surface.”

“While certainly important to our intelligence efforts, a defection by a high-ranking Chinese official will not fundamentally change our understanding or approach to China. In short, if true, this is potentially significant but not a game changer,” she added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not comment on the news published in various US newspapers about the Chinese official’s escape from the country.