An academic meeting brought Dr. Wang Lian across the border from Macau to Zhu Hai City in Guangdong Province, China on Sept. 12, 2006, but that appointment was never kept. Dr. Wang, an assistant professor in information technology at Macau University of Science and Technology, was detained upon reaching the Gongbei Customs and three days later agreed to become a spy for the Chinese regime.
Dr. Wang broke his disturbing story on Feb. 12, five days after he landed in Melbourne, Australia through an open letter that he emailed to The Epoch Times in Hong Kong.
During those three days in Zhu Hai City, Dr. Wang was subjected to continuous interrogation and brainwashing. The reason was that he worked for the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times.
Wang relates in his letter that after being held for two hours in a room at Gongbei Customs "about ten people entered [the detention room], some of them were in police uniform, some in plain clothes. After checking my identity they blindfolded me, unbuckled my belt, took away my watch and mobile phone, and then took me by force into a van."
Several Years of Monitoring
Wang was finally taken to a room whose windows were sealed with nails and whose curtains were drawn. He was first interrogated by three men who claimed to be officials of Guangdong Province's National Security Bureau Zhu Hai office. They revealed to him the reason for his being kidnapped.
"They said, 'You should know your own problems.' I told them I didn't. A little while later they said, 'it is because you practice Falun Gong and, more to the point, because you work for The Epoch Times in Hong Kong."
The three men told Wang that they would lock him up in the very room where he was interrogated.
"I asked how long they would keep me there," Wang wrote, "They said, 'the shortest possible is one day, but it could be up to half a year; and then if we judge it to be appropriate we can extend your detention by another half-year, and then another half-year … don't forget that we are a special government department and have the power to do it this way."
Wang wrote that during the interrogation he was shown a thick pile of letter-size paper and was told that his information was all there.
The agents told Wang, "We have been investigating you for several years now. Here is your case file … We didn't arrest you earlier because it was not time yet. But we know very well each time you entered China and what you did in China on every trip."
Wang Lian was born in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province. He went to Hong Kong in 1996 to pursue graduate study at the University of Hong Kong and in 2002 married a Hong Kong resident. His application in 2002 to extend his student visa was approved by the Hong Kong Immigration Department but was rejected by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of China's State Council. As a result, he had to return to Wuhan and resorted to going to Hong Kong with three-month travel visas in order to finish his doctoral study and to spend time with his wife.
Between 2001 and 2004, Wang worked both as an editor and as a computer technician for the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times. When he started teaching in Macau in 2004, he resigned the editorship but kept part of his computer-related responsibilities.
Brainwashing
Wang's kidnappers told him that because he helped disseminate the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party he had committed a serious "crime." The Nine Commentaries is a book-length editorial series published by The Epoch Times that exposes the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party. It is credited with inspiring a movement to withdraw from the CCP in which to date 18.5 million Chinese have renounced all ties with the CCP.
"They also said, 'Disseminating the Nine Commentaries is enough to convict you; now because you have helped to spread the Nine Commentaries widely by offering technical support to ensure the operation of the Hong Kong Epoch Times, this is not a minor crime. Moreover, you set up the web site of the Hong Kong Epoch Times, which has allowed innumerable people to read the Nine Commentaries. Should [we] shoot you to death? Or should [we] lock you up for the rest of your life?'"
"At this point I was a bit scared," recalls Wang in his letter.
The kidnappers seemed to know everything about him. They kept reminding him about his aged parents, his wife, and his two-year old son, pressuring him to imagine how miserable they would be if he died.
Wang was given a thin mattress for the night, but he said he had no chance to sleep. In an interview on Tuesday with The Epoch Times in Australia, he said that he had "No sleep for 72 hours…even if I wanted I could not fall asleep…They were continually watching and asking some questions."
He was forced to email his university saying that he had to stay in Zhu Hai temporarily because of a visa problem.
Brainwashing began the next morning with the entry of one man and two women. "First they chatted with me in a friendly manner. Then one woman started lecturing on why it is all right to have belief but believing that there is a god is stupid; following her the second woman started slandering and swearing at Falun Gong."
At the end of the second day, Wang was forced to phone his wife lying that he had to extend his stay in Zhu Hai to avoid her suspicion.
By the end of the third day, both physically and mentally exhausted, Wang succumbed. He wrote, as instructed, a letter of declaration agreeing to give up Falun Gong. At the end of it, he was asked to add, "[I have to] come whenever asked and do whatever asked to do."
"It is because of this line I was able to understand that their purpose of kidnapping me was to force me to spy for them."
'Bring the Paper Down!'
After Wang had reported to the university about his return, he left for Hong Kong. On his way, he broke into tears, regretting deeply his statement denying Falun Gong.
As soon as he arrived in Hong Kong, he told a trusted fellow practitioner and his wife about the kidnapping. He was advised to seek safety abroad. But before he could flee, he had to cooperate with the agents who controlled him.
Wang's first and foremost task was to "bring down The Epoch Times. "
In Tuesday's interview, Wang said that between Sept. 18, 2006 and the time he fled Hong Kong, he had six to seven meetings with Chinese agents.
"During the second meeting I gave them the internal office plan [of the Hong Kong Epoch Times ]—where the computers are, who uses which machine, and when the computers will be in use so they can hack them…" In short, Wang was asked to provide the agents with the information that could be used to undermine or disrupt the paper's operation.
Each time Wang gave them the files, he removed from them critical information to protect the paper as much as he could.
Flight to Freedom
Hope came to Wang on Jan. 25 when he was granted a visa to enter Australia. He booked a flight on Feb. 12 and was put on the waiting list for an earlier one.
On Feb. 6, he departed for Melbourne, leaving his wife and son, as well as his five-month-long period of being under the thumb of Chinese agents.
Wang said that the Chinese agents are using every possible means to disrupt or interfere with The Epoch Times. He was asked to provide all kinds of information about all Epoch Times staff members and their friends to help the agents identify potential targets in their recruitment of spies.
Wang is very worried about his parents and sister, who are still in mainland China. He has submitted an application for a humanitarian protection visa in Australia.
Feeds