“Although this whale jumped onto their ship - this is a major coup for US intelligence agencies.”
Apparently, there are a lot of big players in China looking to get out. There has been a spate of recent disappearances of Chinese billionaires - unknown whether they have been detained by the government, have bolted the country, or some mix of these. Capital flight has continued to accelerate since last August’s financial crisis, despite the government’s attempts to restrict it.
High ranking politicians and Party apparatchiks are also looking to bolt, as the internal party purge has gotten nastier than it has been in decades.
There could be more where this asset came from, but it would be hard to get a better positioned asset than the top leader’s chief of staff.