Taiwan daily names Chinese defector

China is concerned the defector may provide Washington with key intelligence

In this story: Probe under way U.S. confirm RELATED STORIES, SITES

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A Taiwanese newspaper has named the Chinese military officer who is believed to have defected to the United States.

In a front story on its Saturday edition, the mass circulation United Daily News, which first broke the story, identified the People's Liberation Army (PLA) senior colonel as Xu Junping.

It said Xu's defection was a "grave incident" in China-U.S. ties and cast a cloud over military exchanges.

The newspaper said Xu's wife was still in Beijing. It gave no further details.

Probe under way

In its first official comment on the defection, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday an investigation is being conducted on a PLA officer who left China and did not return.

A senior U.S. administration source confirmed the defection on Thursday.

The Washington Post newspaper, in a story from Beijing, said China's intelligence community believed U.S. officials in Beijing arranged for the defector's wife to attend a party at the U.S. embassy, gave her travel documents and sent her to the United States.

The revelation came as Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen visited Washington and a U.S. naval warship sailed into Shanghai's bustling port to shore up U.S.-China military ties.

U.S. confirm

U.S. sources have confirmed that a Chinese military officer defected to the United States at the end of last year while visiting as part of a Chinese delegation.

Asked about the defector, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "The situation is that the Chinese asked us last December to locate an individual who was missing."

"We located that individual, made sure that the person was in good health, made the Chinese aware of his presence and that's as far as I would like to go on it," he told the American Newspaper Association.

The United Daily News broke the story on the defection Wednesday. It said the defector was a member of the PLA general staff and part of a disarmament delegation touring the United States and Canada last year.

It said the defector would have been able to provide Washington with intelligence on Beijing's non-proliferation policies.

The newspaper said Beijing had repeatedly demanded the return of the colonel.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Senior Chinese colonel defects to U.S.
March 23, 2001

Xinhua news agency
U.S. Department of State
United Daily News

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