The making of a spy
▶ Mainland student tells of harrowing espionage trial in Taiwan
Editor’s Note:
On March 9, 2017, Zhou Hongxu, a student from the Chinese mainland studying in Taiwan, was arrested by the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office on suspicion of violating the “National Security Act” for “buying information” from an official from the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Zhou denied the accusation, but pled guilty in July 2017 after being detained for four months.
Zhou was transferred to a local court in Taipei where he was accused of “unsuccessful attempts to develop organizations in governmental institutions for the Chinese mainland” on July 6, 2017. During the trial, Zhou said that the investigators took advantage of his eagerness for freedom to persuade him to plead guilty. Zhou received a sentence of one year and two months.
Zhou’s case sparked controversy across the Taiwan Straits, with many commenting that Taiwan local authorities fabricated proof in the case to stir up trouble.
Zhou is currently forbidden from leaving Taipei by local authorities.
In an interview with the Global Times (GT), he recalled the whole experience and said that local authorities in Taiwan hyped his case to show their loyalty to pro-independence Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progress Party (DPP) and to distract local residents from their political failures.
GT: Will you please introduce yourself and explain your current situation?
Zhou: My name is Zhou Hongxu. I was charged with espionage by the Taiwan Prosecutor’s Office. In March 2017,
I was detained by the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Offices for violating the “National Security Act”.
On September 15, 2017, I was sentenced to one year and two months in prison by the Taipei District Court, and released on May 8, 2018.
But now, I am still in Taipei as the Taiwan authorities have banned me from returning to the Chinese mainland because of the investigation into the New Party Youth Committee case.
I am the only child in my family.
I am making a living on savings and funds from my family because the Taiwan authorities won’t allow me to work. Since 2017, it has cost me nearly 10,000 yuan ($1,486) per month no matter how much I save. My three Unionpay cards can’t be used right now. The banks in the mainland say there is no problem with them, so it seems likely that Taiwan has done something. The funds from my family cannot be withdrawn. This is a great infringement on my subsistence rights.
In addition, I have to report to the authorities twice a day, which takes me three hours. Fortunately, I am optimistic but can only spend my spare time writing and drawing.
GT: How did you end up studying in Taiwan?
Zhou: I am from Benxi, Northeast China’s Liaoning Province. In 2009, while studying in Zhejiang University in Zhejiang, East China’s Zhejiang Province, I went on an exchange program with Taiwan Tamkang University for several months. The kindness of Taiwan people impressed me a lot. After my graduation in 2012, I went to the department of business administration at Taiwan National Chengchi University for postgraduate studies.
In 2014, the “Sunflower Movement” changed my impression of Taiwan. I was treated badly by my classmates after expressing some opinions against the movement. Sometimes they refused to greet me or even shouted harsh words at me. Still, there were two or three classmates who didn’t dare talk to me because of the pressure but left messages for me on social media, saying, “I’m sorry I can’t support you in public, but my heart is with you”.
GT: Is there a direct link between your arrest with this previous experience?
Zhou: I think I shouldn’t have spoken my opinion. If my grandson asks me in the future what I did when facing Taiwan pro-independence activists, what should I answer? I later found a community called China Rise in National Taiwan University, in which the members shared the same opinions as students from the Chinese mainland.
We gathered together frequently and sometimes made speeches. I made a lot of friends when I graduated from university. When I look back at that time, I realize that I had caught the attention of the authorities.
The man who framed me appeared in May 2016. He told me that his name was Chen Chaowei, but who knows whether this was an alias. He said he was working for the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” but later I found out that
he who He He was said I had approached from Bureau.” that met he Taiwan’s at was Tamkang me studying “Military through University at a Intelligence Taiwan girl National wanted to Chengchi get to know University students and from the mainland and their ideas on the Belt and Road Initiative for his paper.
Using this as an excuse, he began to get acquainted with many mainland students at National Taiwan University and Taiwan National Chengchi University but kept in touch with very few of them. I believe he finally chose to target me since I was talkative and did not keep my guard up.
He invited me for dinner and sent me cakes as presents, which was noticeable. If I were really the spy the Taiwan authorities accuse me of being, isn’t it more logical that it should be me who was actively inviting others?
When we were in court, Chen denied the above facts by saying that he did not remember it, and the judge never verified his testimony. They acted like hoodlums in court, which was not opper to the public.
I returned to Taiwan in February 2017 as an executive of a company to make contact with my friends who wanted to start businesses. This was purely for business, and we were busy with social engagements with potential business partners.
On March 7, Chen kept offering me drinks at a banquet and kept asking me to introduce officials from the mainland. He said he still worked at the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and hoped to arrange meetings with these officials overseas. I was annoyed by him and joked that “I will introduce Japanese officials to you when you go to Japan!"
By saying this, I clearly expressed my boredom with him. After the banquet, Chen secretly passed me a bag with the Chinese characters “Ministry of Foreign Affairs” on it. I refused to take it.
Then on March 9, I was arrested in a remote mountainous area. A lawyer told me later that the bag was bait and if I had taken it at that time, I would have been arrested on the spot.
GT: Could you share your experience after being arrested?
Zhou: Some investigators broke into my house to search for business cards. Hundreds of them were from people in business circles and only three or four were from public servants from the Chinese mainland. I exchanged these cards at cross-Straits communication activities, and they meant nothing.
But the investigators did not think so – they thought they finally had clues linking me with the mainland. The most ridiculous thing was that after finding nothing of value, they began asking me about my frequent contact with a person named “Lao Han” on my phone. “Whose codename is this Lao Han? Your superior?” I answered that “it’s my mother.”
Without finding concrete evidence, they tried to force me to plead guilty by other means. An investigator told me in a car, “Hongxu, you’re about the same age as my son. You can’t waste your youth this way. If you plead guilty, we can put in a word for you. Since the crime you committed was not that big, you can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison in accordance with the law. Since you did not commit the crime successfully, you will be sentenced to less than two and a half years. And considering your good attitude, the sentence will be reduced to one year and three months. There will be no chance of letting you go without you pleading guilty. You have to do it.”
Honestly speaking, I was almost convinced because I had such a tough time since being detained on March 9, 2017.
During my detention, I was kept in a room of less than five square meters shared with one or two people, in which we ate, drank, used the toilet and slept. When you slept, one person’s shoulder would be right next to that of another person, who may have tattoos or be taking drugs. Everyone in the room got skin ulcers because of the humidity. Apart from the hearings, I stayed in the cell for six and a half months.
GT: What were the “inappropriate procedures” the Taiwan authorities did during the investigation and hearing in your case?
Zhou: The first was the entrapment operation. At the beginning, when I was arrested, I naively thought that I had made some wrong remarks during the banquet that had harmed Chen. Later, I found out that Chen had recorded our entire conversation but only showed the parts that would benefit himself.
After Tsai Ing-wen “took office” in May 2016, some people in Taiwan’s intelligence agencies wanted to show their loyalty, just like Chen. By using these methods, they could make as many “spies” as they wanted and needed.
There were also so many loopholes during the investigation into my case. During the trial of the second instance, investigators said they did not touch my computer, which had been seized. But in May, they suddenly wanted to search it, and after that they found the so-called plan to “develop organizations in Taiwan.” But it was only in December that they took actions to arrest the members. This was illogical. Why did they not move immediately after finding “such important proof?” When they searched my computer, why wasn’t I or at least my lawyer there? They could have put whatever they wanted into my computer.
I suffered a lot in the cell. I just got the chance to speak one or two sentences to the media when I was taken to court, and some media exposed the malpractice of the judicial organs. The court then decided to detain me and not allow me to meet anyone at the end of the trial for fear of my contact with the media.
There are some words that I can use to describe my trial – unfairness and injustice. We all noticed that the trial was not open to the public, which also showed the suspicious attitude of the local authorities.
GT: Why did the Taiwan authorities refuse to let you come back to the mainland?
Zhou: Portraying me as a “spy” for the mainland is the political objective of the Democratic Progressive Party. Proindependence groups in Taiwan want to hype up “the threat of the mainland” and the “infiltration by the mainland” to make an excuse for Taiwan independence. If people in Taiwan focused on “the infiltration by the mainland,” the Taiwan authorities would be given breathing room despite their terrible policies on the economy and other administrations. This may be their purpose, and they have to keep me in Taiwan.
GT: Do you worry about your situation and your safety after revealing these things to the media?
Zhou: Why did the judge from the so-called democratic and free Taiwan release me and remind me “to speak and act discreetly?” Did they worry that I may say something? There is a chance that the authorities won’t be happy about what I’ve told you and arrest me again. What kind of safety do I have now? They want to see that I’m frightened of them.
I may have been persuaded to confess once, but then I refused, because if I confess to something that I did not do, the authority in Taiwan will often use this means to make so-called spies.
If they are determined to make me a “spy,” I hope I am the last one!