premise: China's official Xinhua news agency on Thursday denied that its former Washington bureau chief had killed himself after plans to defect were found out.
  "I read the New York Times article about the death of Wei Guoqiang. Their story is ridiculous and baseless," Chen Boliang the head of the agency's foreign affairs department said.
  "It could even be said that it is totally made up," he added.
  The US newspaper said Wednesday that Wei, 47, had been recalled to Beijing in late March after a colleagues in Washington discovered that he was preparing to ask for political asylum for himself, his wife and his 17-year-old daughter.
   What could be expected to happen if Wei Guoqiang did have plans to defect?
hypothesis: colleagues in Washington discovered that