PARLIAMENT HILL—The police chief of one of China’s major cities has disappeared from sight just days before Prime Minister Stephen Harper was to visit the city and meet its controversial mayor, a hardline communist demoted for international criticism related to his persecution of Falun Gong.
The PM looks to be arriving amid political turmoil in Chongqing, as its high-profile police chief Wang Lijun has disappeared and appears to have sought asylum at the U.S. consulate in nearby Chengdu.
The U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday that Wang had been at the consulate, but a spokesperson refused to comment on rumours he sought asylum.
Meanwhile, Harper’s meeting with Chongqing’s Communist Party secretary Bo Xilai could help raise the fortunes of one of the regime’s most brutal and anti-democratic figures, say critics.
Wang was Bo’s right-hand-man and a very public figure in a campaign to crack down on crime, which proved controversial because of accusations that some figures had been protected and that political opponents were targeted.
