![]() ![]() Yuan rally thickens China’s capital flight plot Chinese Vice Minister of State Security Dong Jingwei (right) attends the 16th meeting of the Security Council Secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States on June 23, 2021. He did not speak at the virtual event and critics on social media have claimed the photo may have been doctored. Newsweek reported the apparent sighting, quoting the state reports. The speculation was pinpricked somewhat by Chinese state media reports reputedly showing Dong participating in a meeting of the Security Council Secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states on June 23. Western authorities have not confirmed the defection report, which has been all over Chinese-language platforms and generated reams of speculative international media headlines. The apparent upshot of the cloak and dagger speculation has been the resuscitation of the so-called “lab leak” accusation, largely dismissed as a conspiracy theory last year, which has now entered mainstream scientific and policy discussion with potentially dire consequences for Beijing.Ĭhina is already facing potential trillion-dollar lawsuits across the US, as hawkish Republicans double down on their attempts to hold Beijing accountable for the pandemic, which has devastated economies and claimed millions of lives worldwide. The work of Dr Shi Zhengli figures large in the dossier prepared by Western governments as intelligence agencies around the world investigate whether the virus inadvertently leaked from a Wuhan laboratory. The Communist Party, however, may have to deal with an even bigger challenge in the coming months if rumors that Chinese Vice Minister of State Security Dong Jingwei has defected to Washington and provided crucial classified information on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic are proven true. Beijing state media has denied the defection rumors. But contrary to Xi’s upbeat rhetoric, the walls are actually closing in on Beijing amid a global backlash building on the hotly contested origin of the pandemic.Ĭhina is increasingly grappling with a full-blown new Cold War with the West, as Washington and its allies step up joint military exercises, collectively slap human rights-related sanctions on senior Chinese officials, and potentially move towards coordinated trade and investment counter-measures against Beijing’s big-tech companies and predatory economic practices. Presenting the CCP as China’s ultimate savior, he also touted the country’s immense economic strides as well as decisive management of the Covid-19 pandemic. ![]() The Chinese leader, who is simultaneously the party chief and head of the all-important Central Military Commission, claimed his country “never bullied, oppressed or enslaved the peoples of other countries” and vowed the country “will never allow foreign forces to bully, oppress or enslave us.” Celebrating the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) centenary, President Xi Jinping – conspicuously donning a Mao suit – struck both a confident and defiant note. ![]()
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