Developing situation about Jia Jia the defector from Communist China

Here is what we know--

October 23, 2006:

This is a Monday. Jia Jia defects, leaving his tour group in Taiwan.

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October 26, 2006:

Epoch Times article, "Chinese Official Defects in Taiwan; Seeks Split from CCP"

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October 27, 2006:

This is a Friday. Jia Jia makes an appearance at a press conference in Hong Kong.
Epoch Times article, "Chinese Defector in Hong Kong After Taiwan Rejects His Political Asylum Request"
Epoch Times article, "Chinese Defector Reveals Officials' Desire to Quit the Communist Party--UPDATED"
China e-Lobby says,

"Taiwan sends back Communist defector: Given the island democracy's proximity to the Communist mainland and concern for espionage, deporting ex-cadre Jia Jia is an understandable mistake, but a mistake all the same (Epoch Times)."

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October 28, 2006:

Epoch Times article, "Correction: Chinese Defector Given His Correct Title"
Epoch Times article, "Top Chinese Official Seeks Asylum"

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October 29, 2006:

This is a Sunday. A rally in Vancouver is held in support of Jia Jia.
Epoch Times article, "SOS! My Father Is in Grave Danger From The Chinese Communist Regime for Publicly Supporting Democracy"
Epoch Times article, "Mainland Chinese Defector's Son Asks for Support for Father"
The rally's appeal includes these words:
"For the people who love freedom and democracy please support Jia immediately. We appeal especially to the Hong Kong government to protect Jia and support his democratic agenda so that democracy can be achieved in China."

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October 30, 2006:

China e-Lobby

"reports from a Vancouver rally for Jia Jia (for more on Jia, see Epoch Times, Epoch Times again, and eighth item)"

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November 1, 2006:

China e-Lobby says,

"Jia Jia denied asylum by the United States, too: The Communist statistician who turned on his party (eighth and lead items) now fears arrest - and worse - in Hong Kong; he talked to Bill Gertz (Washington Times). This decision (by Washington) is a terrible mistake; it should be reversed and Jia should be granted asylum."

See below for a Washington Times article and an Open Letter to President Bush from D.J. McGuire about Jia Jia.

Washington Times article:

Chinese defector finds no asylum

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 1, 2006

A former high-ranking Chinese technology specialist has defected and is seeking political asylum in the United States in order to promote democratic change in China.
Jia Jia, until recently the head of the government-backed China Shanxi Science and Technology Experts Association in Shanxi, north-central China, said in a telephone interview from Hong Kong that he defected Oct. 23 during a visit to Taiwan because he opposes Chinese Communist Party rule.
"China right now is not free," Mr. Jia said. "I left China because I want to make use of the democratic environment outside the country."
Once China has taken steps to match its economic reform with democratic political reform, Mr. Jia said he will return to China.
Mr. Jia was refused political asylum in Taiwan because, he said, Taiwanese officials feared allowing him to stay would upset China.
The U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, where he is staying temporarily, also has rejected Mr. Jia's appeal for political asylum, telling him that he did not meet the qualifications.
The former technology official said he has been granted permission to stay seven days in Hong Kong under rules governing tourist visits, while he seeks permission to move to another country. Because Hong Kong is part of China, he could be arrested after that period.
Mr. Jia said that if he is forcibly repatriated, he faces torture and possible death because he has spoken out against the ruling Communist Party and in support of democracy.
Mr. Jia advocates the creation of a non-communist federal government in China to replace the ruling-party system.
The increase in protests and civil unrest in China is the result of opposition to communist rule, he said.
"I hope President Bush will help me go [to the United States] and that U.S. citizens will help me to realize a democratic China," Mr. Jia said.
"If President Bush can do that, the Chinese people will thank America for generations," he said.
Mr. Bush vowed to support pro-democracy advocates in his 2005 inaugural speech. He said democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile around the world should known that "America sees you for who you are: the future leaders of your free country."
However, pro-China officials in the White House and elsewhere in the Bush administration have blocked major U.S. government efforts to help Chinese dissidents since doing so would upset relations between Washington and Beijing.
Mr. Jia said he believes "millions" of Chinese Communist Party members want democratic reform, as do millions of others among China's 1.3 billion population.
As many as 14 million of China's 78 million Communist Party members have left the party in recent years, a factor that prompted his defection, Mr. Jia said.
Last year, China's ruling party issued a white paper stating that China will never adopt Western-style democracy.
Mr. Jia said he is not a member of the banned Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong, which advocates the ouster of the Communist Party in China, but he said he has been supported by the group in his efforts to seek asylum.

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The Open Letter to President Bush from D.J. McGuire about Jia Jia--


Dear Mr. President,

The fate of a very brave man is in your hands.

In Hong Kong, Jia Jia awaits an almost certain arrest by the Communist Chinese regime for trying to bring democracy to the Chinese people. For reasons that are unknown - and even if they were known, they'd be unfathomable - The American consulate in Hong Kong denied him asylum.

I ask you to order the consulate to reverse that decision and grant Jia asylum in the United States.

Jia may be just one man, but the implications of his situation are enormous. As head of the China Shanxi Science and Technology Experts Association, Jia was a well-placed technology specialist. The information he has learned about Communist China's technological industry could be a tremendous intelligence boon for the democratic world, especially given the fact that the civilian and military technology sectors are so deeply intertwined - it could even be reasonably said that they are not separate sectors at all.

However, this is about more than mere intelligence information. Since the release of the Nine Commentaries two years ago, over 14 million Communist Party members have seen the light and left the Party in disgust. In other words, one in every one hundred citizens of the People's Republic of China is a former Communist (within the Party itself, that is more than two out of every eleven members). For understandable reasons, many high-ranking ex-cadres are too fearful to speak out. Jia is arguably the highest-ranking ex- Communist to go public with his call for a democratic China. Millions of other ex-Communists are watching to see if the democratic world will protect and aid Jia.

By granting Jia asylum and protection, the United States will show that the nations of the democratic world are eager to see China join them. Conversely, continuing to deny him asylum sends the unintended signal that the free world is more worried about the Chinese Communist Party than the Chinese people.

This is not the signal we want to send.

Jia Jia can be more than just a leader in the China democracy movement; he can be a symbol to all who have rejected the Communist Party that they have been noticed by the democratic world, and a symbol of encouragement to those considering leaving the Party to do the right thing. That is the main reason why the Communist Party is so eager to ensure Jia is not granted asylum. It is also the main reason asylum should be granted.

Let Jia Jia become China's symbol, rather than its martyr. Please, Mr. President, grant Jia Jia asylum in the United States.