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World Now

Former police chief in Chinese boomtown disappears

By Barbara Demick
 and Paul Richter
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REPORTING FROM BEIJING AND WASHINGTON -- 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 a nearby U.S. Consulate.

Chongqing issued an unusual and cryptic statement Wednesday saying that Vice Mayor Wang Lijun was “highly stressed and in poor health ... because of long-term overwork” and that he was “accepting vacation-style treatment.”

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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 nearby Chengdu.

Richard Buanguan, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, said Wednesday, “As a matter of policy we never comment on reported requests for asylum.” Buanguan added that at no time was the consulate in Chengdu under threat.

In Washington, U.S. officials said Wang sought and was granted a meeting this week with officials at the consulate in Chengdu.

Victoria Nuland, the chief State Department spokeswoman, said Wang asked for the meeting “in his capacity as vice mayor,” but she declined to provide other details of their discussion.

Despite reports that he was forced to leave, she said Wang “left of his own volition.... He walked out. It was his choice.”

Reports on the Chinese mainland were censored and photographs of the surrounded consulate removed. The Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News said that Wang was arrested after failing to get political asylum. Boxun, a U.S.-based Chinese website, carried unconfirmed reports that Wang was under investigation for torturing corruption suspects.

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Chengdu, about 165 miles from Chongqing, has the closest consulate. It would be highly unusual for an official to seek asylum inside the country in question, as a consulate or embassy can easily be surrounded.

Whatever has happened to Wang, the scandal could derail Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary in Chongqing and a rising political star. Wang was Bo’s top cop during a well-publicized crackdown on organized crime in Chongqing in which Wang’s predecessor, Wen Qiang, was executed for corruption. Bo, who also spearheaded a campaign to revive “red culture” last year, is vying for a seat on the Politburo’s Standing Committee.

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-- Barbara Demick in Beijing and Paul Richter in Washington

World Now
Barbara Demick

Barbara Demick is a former foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times who previously headed bureaus in Beijing and Seoul, as well as New York. She is the author of “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” and “Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood.” Demick has won Britain’s Samuel Johnson Award for best nonfiction; the George Polk Award; the Robert F. Kennedy Award; the Osborn Elliott Prize for Journalism from the Asia Society; the Overseas Press Club’s Joe and Laurie Dine Award for human rights reporting; the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award; and Stanford University’s Shorenstein Award for best Asia reporting. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Paul Richter

Paul Richter covered the State Department and foreign policy for the Los Angeles Times out of its Washington, D.C., bureau. He previously covered the Pentagon, the White House and, from New York City, the financial industry. He was raised in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., and graduated from Clark University. He left The Times in 2015.

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