Beijing has thus far not formally responded since Shanghai-based China Eastern Airline pilot Yuan Sheng sought political asylum in Los Angeles on August 9. According to a China Eastern Airline employee today, Yang’s defection to the United States shook high level officials within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The CCP has held urgent internal discussions about response tactics. Before China News Service’s August 11 interview with a China Eastern Airline’s spokesperson, related departments were told to black out the news and take the same position on the Yuan incident when asked.
The insider revealed that the CCP’s silence is a double-sided tactic. Yuan’s case has been internally treated as a very serious issue. High internal tension prohibits anyone from being interviewed by outside journalists, and people have been told not to reveal the reason for Yuan’s stay in the United States. They are especially forbidden to mention the Nine Commentaries and the growing numbers of withdrawals from the Communist Party
Despite censorship from high levels of the CCP, the news of Yuan’s defection has spread quickly, said the China Eastern Airline employee. Yuan’s colleagues and friends have been paying close attention to his situation and have been seeking information about accessing foreign Web sites.
The insider warned Yuan not to return to China for fear of his personal safety.
After Yuan’s arrival in Los Angeles on August 9, an Epoch Times reporter called China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was told that no press release was available at the time.
A China Eastern Airline’s media spokesperson declined to answer any questions, and the general manager of the aviation department said that they were “just discussing it in a meeting.” In a phone interview with The Epoch Times , Yuan’s colleagues and superiors spoke highly of his moral character.
Diverting Attention from the Truth
American current affairs commentator Zhang Jielian expressed today that the incident has already become an acute life-threatening disease for the CCP. He said that the recent arrest of renowned, Beijing-based attorney Gao Zhisheng is the CCP’s attempt at a short-term political game that diverts the world’s attention from the Nine Commentaries , the mass withdrawals from the CCP , and the use of living Falun Gong adherents as a source of organs for China’s booming organ transplant industry. [The latter has been documented by two independent Canadian investigators.]
