{"id":25363,"date":"2012-02-09T02:44:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T02:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=25363 "},"modified":"2012-02-09T02:44:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T02:44:00","slug":"25363-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=25363","title":{"rendered":"Disappearance of Chongqing Vice-Mayor Leads to Rumors of Asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">A crusading former police chief in the boomtown of Chongqing disappeared under unexplained circumstances and reportedly may have tried and failed to obtain political asylum at the nearest U.S. Consulate.<\/span><\/div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">\r\n<div><br \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Chongqing issued an unusual and cryptic statement Wednesday saying that Vice Mayor Wang Lijun was &#8220;highly stressed and in poor health &#8230; because of long-term overwork&#8221; and that he was &#8220;accepting vacation-style treatment.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">The reports that he might have sought asylum in the United States were fueled by an unusual police presence at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Richard Buanguan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said Wednesday, &#8220;As a matter of policy we never comment on reported requests for asylum.&#8221; <\/span><\/div>\r\n<div><br \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Buanguan said that at no time was the consulate in Chengdu under threat.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">In Washington, U.S. officials said Wang sought and was granted a meeting this week with officials at the consulate in Chengdu.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Victoria Nuland, the chief State Department spokeswoman, said Wang asked for the meeting &#8220;in his capacity as vice mayor,&#8221; but she declined to provide other details of the encounter.<\/span> \r\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div><\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Despite reports that he was forced to leave, she said Wang &#8220;left of his own volition&#8230;. He walked out. It was his choice.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">By late Tuesday, the consulate in Chengdu was surrounded by Chinese police and some roads blockaded. Dozens of photographs were posted on the Chinese microblog Sina Weibo but quickly removed by censors. The Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News said that Wang was arrested after failing to obtain political asylum.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>&nbsp;<br \/><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Boxun, a U.S.-based Chinese website, said that Wang was under investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party&#8217;s top disciplinary body, and that he had been transferred to Beijing.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">The South China Morning Post, based in Hong Kong, said he had also sought asylum at another country&#8217;s consulate.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<div>&nbsp;<br \/><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; color: #2d2d2d; font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\"><font face=\"\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt\">Continue reading&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span><a style=\"color: #034af3; text-decoration: none\" href=\"http:\/\/thelede.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/05\/journalists-should-be-government-mouthpieces-chinas-state-tv-president-says\/?ref=china#h[]\"><\/a><\/span><a style=\"background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; color: #034af3; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/world\/la-fg-china-chief-disappeared-20120209,0,6319027.story\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt\"><strong>original article<\/strong><\/span><\/a><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial; color: #2d2d2d; font-size: 12pt\">.<\/span><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, sans-serif; color: #2d2d2d; font-size: 14px\"><font face=\"\"><\/font><\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After reportedly seeking asylum at a U.S. consulate, Wang Lijun is nowhere to be found.&amp;nbsp; This could also have repurcussions for Chongqing&#39;s Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai, who is vying for a seat on the national Politburo&#39;s Standing Committee.&amp;nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}