[untenured]

Dong is, or was, a longtime official in China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), also known as the Guoanbu. His publicly available background indicates that he was responsible for the Ministry’s counterintelligence efforts in China, i.e., spy-catching, since being promoted to vice minister in April 2018. If the stories are true, Dong would be the highest-level defector in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

RedState’s sources confirmed that the defector is, in fact, Dong, that he was in charge of counterintelligence efforts in China, and that he flew to the United States in mid-February, allegedly to visit his daughter at a university in California. When Dong landed in California he contacted DIA officials and told them about his plans to defect and the information he’d brought with him. Dong then “hid in plain sight” for about two weeks before disappearing into DIA custody.

I don’t know the first thing about spycraft, but why is such a story plausible? Why would the CCP senior leadership ever consent to a guy as important as this leave the country in a non-official setting?

[El Gato]

He likely didn't ask permission. At that level he could easily acquire transport. The story about visiting his daughter was likely for US consumption, not Chinese.