Victoria Nuland
Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
February 8, 2012

 

 

QUESTION: I’ve got one on another subject --
MS. NULAND: Please, yes.
QUESTION: -- specifically these reports coming out of China that a deputy mayor of Chongqing had sought refuge at the consulate in Chengdu and that there had been an unexpected increase in security personnel around the consulate for a while. What can you tell us about any of this?
MS. NULAND: Well, I think you’re referring to reports about the vice mayor of Chongqing – right – City. So his name is Wang Lijun. Wang Lijun did request a meeting at the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu earlier this week in his capacity as vice mayor. The meeting was scheduled, our folks met with him, he did visit the consulate and he later left the consulate of his own volition. So – and obviously, we don’t talk about issues having to do with refugee status, asylum, et cetera.
QUESTION: Okay. But – so can you tell us exactly when that meeting took place?
MS. NULAND: I believe – we’re here on Wednesday – I believe it was Monday, but if that is not right, we will get back to you.
QUESTION: Do you have any information about what – have you had any subsequent contact with him? Because there’s some questions about his whereabouts.
MS. NULAND: Yeah. To my knowledge, we have not.
QUESTION: And aside from any possible thing that you couldn’t talk about on asylum can you tell us what he did talk about there? What was the purpose of this meeting?
MS. NULAND: Frankly, I don’t have anything at the moment on the substance of the meeting.
QUESTION: Can you say why you said he used – why you used the term, “he left the consulate of his – on his own volition”?
MS. NULAND: Well again, there has been some reporting to indicate that that might not have been the case, but it was the case.
QUESTION: Okay. The reporting being that he had been forced to leave or that had been dragged out, or --
MS. NULAND: There’s been unusual reporting about all of this. So just to reaffirm for you, that he walked out, it was his choice.
Okay. Jill.