China confirms two dead reporters

By Charles Smith

In a little more than a year, two of Beijing’s top reporters in
Washington D.C. have died, and it appears that at least one death was in
connection with an attempt to defect to the U.S.

Xinhua, the official state news agency of the People’s Republic of
China,
confirmed that former
D.C. bureau chief Ying Qian died late last year. And current Xinhua
Washington D.C. Bureau Chief Jiang Liu confirmed the two deaths during
an exclusive interview with WorldNetDaily.

“Two former D.C. Xinhua bureau chiefs have died,” stated Jiang from
his office in northern Virginia. “Most recently, Mr. Ying Qian died
last year.”

Sources inside China report that Ying Qian was forced to return to
China after Military Intelligence Department officers discovered he
intended to defect to the United States. Both Ying and the other
unnamed Xinhua D.C. bureau chief reportedly committed suicide, according
to Chinese nationals who recently defected to the U.S. WND’s sources
preferred to remain unnamed for fear of retribution against relatives
living in China.

The Washington Embassy of the People’s Republic of China has refused
to confirm or deny the reports of Ying’s attempted defection and the two
suicides. It also did not respond to faxed questions surrounding either
of the dead Washington Xinhua journalists.

However, according to Xinhua News Chief Jiang Liu, Ying died of
natural causes. But he would not specify the cause of the other Xinhua
bureau chief’s death.

“Mr. Ying had a disease,” stated Jiang flatly. “He died of a
disease.”

Xinhua News is the official press outlet for communist China,
providing reports from over 135 bureaus worldwide on political, economic
and international issues affecting Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Former Xinhua D.C. Bureau Chief Ying Qian was well known in
Washington press circles. He reportedly left his position in 1999 to
return to China for treatment of a “liver problem.”

Johnny Chung

One source who openly doubts the “liver” death explanation is Johnny
Chung, who knew Ying Qian.

Convicted in 1998 of illegal campaign donations to President Clinton,
Chung has since cooperated fully with the FBI, worked to expose
corruption in the Clinton administration — especially in relation to
communist China — and has been the recent target of two assassination
attempts linked to Beijing. /news/archives.asp?ARCHIVE_ID=120Chung is also an exclusive columnist for
WorldNetDaily.

Chung says he made the Department of Justice aware of Ying Qian
before the Washington bureau chief was pronounced dead by the official
Chinese news agency.

According to Chung, Ying had visited Chung’s residence inside
Washington, and also had Chung visit Ying’s daughter in Beijing. Chung
confirmed that Ying liked America and may well have been attempting to
defect.

“He was a very healthy man,” stated Chung, who scoffs at the official
Xinhua story that Ying died of a “disease.”

“I don’t for a moment believe them (Xinhua News). When I met Ying he
was honest, but really scared,” said Chung in an exclusive WorldNetDaily
interview from his Los Angeles office.

“I met Ying four times. As I sit back now and think to these four
events with Ying, I now realize what was happening. Oh my God, he tried
to send me a message. He wanted to be protected. He wanted to get his
children out of China before he defected,” asserted Chung.

“The first time I met Ying Qian was after I tried to help Harry Wu,”
said Chung.

Wu, a naturalized American citizen and human rights activist, angered
China by documenting charges of human rights abuses in Chinese labor
camps. After being arrested in 1995 and spending two months isolated in
a small cell, he was eventually expelled and allowed to return to the
U.S.

“In 1995, I found out that Harry Wu had been arrested in China,”
continued Chung. “I used all of my connections in Washington and Beijing
to get him freed. At one point, Bill Press of CNN accompanied me to meet
with Chinese embassy officials at the Hilton in Washington D.C., seeking
Harry’s release.”

“In March 1995, I took several Chinese businessmen, including
representatives from China Oil and from CITIC on a tour of the White
House,” noted Chung.

“I also invited the Xinhua agency reporter to cover the story. Many
of the Chinese businessmen wanted to be in the Chinese press back home.
The Xinhua reporter brought Ying along to the White House. This is where
I met Ying Qian for the first time,”
asserted Chung.

“Ying said to me, ‘You know, I am the Washington bureau chief.
Normally I don’t come out for these events unless there is a
vice-premier or higher attending. I only do the big shots, but for you
I made sure to come over.'”

“I told Ying that I was going to Beijing to help Harry Wu and asked
if he could help me,” noted Chung.

“Ying gave me the name of his superior in Beijing. Ying also
wanted me to tell his superior what a good job he was doing
in Washington and that he wanted to continue working in America,”
emphasised Chung. “He wanted to stay in the United States.”

“Later that year I traveled to Beijing, I met Yu Jia-Fu, the
deputy director for foreign affairs of the Xinhua News agency.
I asked him to help me get Harry Wu returned to the United States.”

“Still, we had some success, because after the meeting they decided
to let Harry Wu go,” said Chung. “After Harry Wu was released, Ying
asked me to meet at my Washington D.C. apartment. This time he acted
very funny. He did not talk about anything important at all for most of
the meeting.”

“Then at the end, Ying said, ‘You Americans are so interesting. You
care about your citizens. You all try to stand up and protect them even
from far away, just like Harry Wu. If I were ever in trouble, I would
like to be in that kind of position. If I were ever in trouble, I would
like to have friends like Harry Wu did.'”

“We had talked for several hours, and I could tell he was under
tremendous pressure,” noted Chung.

“Later in 1996, Ying’s wife came to America. Ying and his wife met
with me and invited me out to dinner in Washington. I took them to the
Washington China town, to an expensive restaurant. I also paid for the
bill, even though they asked me to the dinner. This is because the
dinner bill was at least twenty percent of Ying’s monthly salary from
China.”

According to Chung, it was at this dinner that Ying and his wife
quietly sought his help.

“During the dinner, Mrs. Ying talked mostly. She tried to get me to
hire her son-in-law and her daughter. I really did not understand at
the time, but now it is apparent that they were trying to get their
daughter out of China. I had already been approached by many Chinese
officials in Beijing to get jobs for their children in America. This
was not unusual.”

“Yet, this time I wondered why he had asked me out to dinner. I felt
that something was wrong. This was not just another bureaucrat asking
for a favor,” noted Chung.

“Ying wanted me to give his daughter and son-in-law a job in the
United States. He wanted me to get his children out,” said Chung.

“Ying’s son-in-law and daughter came to my Beijing apartment
during my next trip to Beijing to meet me,” said Chung. “I was
not very impressed and he seemed disappointed that I did not
give him a job.”

According to Chung, he also gave details on Ying Qian to the
Department of Justice during lengthy interrogation sessions after his
conviction.

“They (the Department of Justice) told me that the Xinhua News agency
is actually a spy agency,” noted Chung. “I told them all I knew about
Ying and his wife, but they did not seem interested.”

“If Ying had defected, it would have caused a big diplomatic incident
between the United States and China,” said Chung.

“I did not know then, but who else could he go to? He did not know
anyone he could trust. He came to me for help. He was scared to death,”
said Chung.

“I am going to pursue this,” he added.

Charles Smith

Charles R. Smith is a noted investigative journalist. For over 20 years, Smith has covered areas of national security and information warfare. He frequently appears on national television for the Fox network and is a popular guest on radio shows all over America. Read more of Charles Smith's articles here.