The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee wants answers from the State Department about whether a Chinese vice mayor sought asylum — and was denied such — at an American consulate.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), in a Feb. 10 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, requested that all documentation surrounding the Wang Lijun case be turned over to her committee by today.
On Wednesday, her office told me that no response had been received yet.
Wang, a senior police official and chief crime investigator in Chonquing, showed up at the American Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6 wearing a disguise.
“Reports imply that Mr. Wang may have been denied by the U.S. a request for asylum after Chinese authorities learned of the attempted defection, and police and security forces surrounded the consulate,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “Wang’s current whereabouts are unknown.”
The Chongqing government’s information office said Feb. 8 that Wang was suffering from “immense mental stress and serious physical discomfort” and was put on “vacation-style treatment.” He may have been flown to Beijing on that day.
“These reports raise questions about whether Mr. Wang sought asylum protection from the United States and, if so, what steps were taken to secure U.S. national interests and Mr. Wang’s personal safety,” Ros-Lehtinen wrote.
She’s requesting all cables, memos, emails and other correspondence between the consulate, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the State Department.
The chairwoman also requested a State Department briefing for her committee on the Wang matter and on China-specific guidelines for handling people who seek walk-in asylum.
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