This is the third episode of The Missing Minister.

If you haven't already listened to episodes one and two,

we recommend doing that first.

One day I got a text from our colleague Ling Wei.

She'd just connected with a source, and what she'd learned would redirect the course of our reporting.

So you met with a source who knows what's going on with Chingam?

Yes, and is there anything you can tell us about this source?

Um, let me think a little bit. So I can only say, you know, this source has knowledge about the party investigation into

Chenggan and what it had turned up.

For months, we've been trying to figure out why Chinese officials seemed to take Chin's affair with Fus Shao Tian so seriously.

Now, Ling's source was offering an explanation.

It was quite unbelievable.

It was unbelievable.

According to the source,

Chingang disappeared last year because the Chinese were told

that the woman he had a fair with,

Fushot Tian, was a spy.

A spy.

This was an explosive allegation. So Ling Lang kept reporting,

kept talking to people in a position to know about Chin's investigation,

and she kept us in the loop along the way.

I do trust the source. I know him for years as well.

...