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Swirling, widespread reports over the past several weeks that Beijing’s top counterintelligence official had defected to the United States are “not accurate,” a U.S. government official told SpyTalk on Tuesday.

“We are just looking to correct the record,” said the official, speaking on terms of anonymity to discuss the highly sensitive issue.

SpyTalk had sought comment from the State Department last week when preparing a story on mounting rumors that Dong Jingwei, vice minister of the Ministry of State Security, China’s principal espionage and internal security agency, had defected in February via Hong Kong along with his daughter Dong Yang. The department did not respond. 

But on Tuesday a U.S. official reached out to say reports of Dong’s defection were not true. Speaking strictly on terms of anonymity, the official declined to elaborate further, including on Dong’s present whereabouts, only…