[TigerLikesRooster]

From the article:

The U.S. embassy in Beijing declined to comment on the rumours that Wang had sought asylum, saying only that he had gone to the consulate in Chengdu for a meeting and left “of his own volition”.

So he did try to defect, and State Dept. got a cold feet and kicked him out.

[Tallguy]

That’s my initial take on this too. The US consulate probably made a panic call to the China Desk @ the State Department an the would-be defector was sent packing! Can’t tick off the country holding our mortgage dontcha know?

[taxesareforever]

Yep. The State Department says “Hands Off”. Don’t want to create an incident. Par for this administration.