A man who spent a decade and a half working as a spy is sharing details of some of his missions with Radio-Canada, including what he knows about the Chinese attacker who died in BC in 2022.
“From 2008 to 2023, my real job was to work for China’s secret police. It is a form of political repression. “Its main target is the real critic of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Eric shared various documents – including financial records, secret money transfers and religious names – with reporters from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and the Washington-based Consortium of Investigative Journalists, of which CBC / Radio-Canada is a partner.
The records provide unprecedented insight into the inner workings of China’s overseas exploration activities.
Eric was willing to be featured and photographed but did not want Radio-Canada to use his real name. A translator hired to translate from Mandarin also asked not to be called God, for fear of reprisal.
Eric explained that he was once a pro-democracy activist at Pro-Democracy, where he joined China’s underground democracy group. But he said he was forced to join the inspection after receiving a visit from the police one day.
For 15 years, Eric worked for the China Bureau of the Chinese Government Security Ministry, a unit specialized in monitoring dissidents abroad. He He previously told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. That he tested on a Japanese-based space and a YouTuber exiled to Australia. Often, he said, his cover worked for real companies in the countries where it was distributed – companies that cooperated with China’s secret police.
CBC/Radio-Canada was able to verify most of his claims using his phone history.
For example, while on assignment in Cambodia, his cover had a group of princes, a multibillion dollar conglomerate with interests in retail and financial and retail services. (The company did not respond to messages from Radio-Canada.)
In 2020, Eric said that he was given the job of rapping a conference named Hua Yong, an artist with a difficult image of the Communist Party of China that ends up in the Sun.
(The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, including a request for an interview.)
Friends of friends online
After protesting in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 2012, Hua was arrested and sent to a re-education camp. He was eventually released but was arrested again in 2017 for rewriting a mass eviction at his workplace in Beijing.
By March 2020, Hua was in exile in Thailand. Eric said the Chinese authorities wanted him kidnapped, but they felt he was nowhere to be found. So Eric’s hand directed him to look for Hua in Cambodia or Laos – countries close to China.
Eric’s assignment was delivered to him via voicemail on one of the few messaging apps he and his bosses used over the years. It was in one of the thousands of audio and text exchanges, including his communications with his superiors, that Eric was caught from.
Among them are Eric’s Handler’s messages to him in Mandarin about Hua:
Listen to my request below. It’s about Hua Yong. The light-ups find him angry and want to interact with him.– Eric’s boss
(The latter expression can be translated as “you want to get rid of him.”)
Eric said he talked to his superiors about different ways to entice Hua to go to another country where the Chinese police can find him. Finally, Eric came up with a plan: He started discussing HUA in public relations, then moved to encrypted messaging applications. In an interview with the Telegraph app, Eric suggested they set up a resistance group and try to build a following.
Fake Rebel Army
To gain Hua’s confidence, Eric founded a Communist Rebel group called V Brigade and started posting about social media.
In a video posted on YouTube in September 2020, Eric is wearing a three-hole camo balaclava and is seen shooting blanks. He announces: “Hello, everyone. I’m here with the v brigade to present today’s topic: how to prepare yourself for armed revolution and armed struggle.”
The ruse worked.
“It’s amazing!” Hua wrote to Eric, as the two became comrades in arms and met in Bangkok at the same time.
But in early April 2021, the Chinese secret police lost HUA. A brief marker is placed. Eric reported to his superiors that Hua was seen in Turkey and then in Paris.
Then on April 6, Hua sent to social media in Canada. He invited Eric to join him and become a spokesman for the revolutionary group. Eric’s superiors order him to return to China and keep tabs on his stone far away.
Foul has nothing to do with death, said RcMP P
Hua eventually moved to Gibsons, BC, where he began crab fishing and kayaking, which he posted on social media.
In the autumn of 2022, Hua was exhausted when his kayak was almost attacked after a luxury yacht passed him.
“To him, this was just an accident. But to me, it looked like a massacre,” said Li Jianfeng, who was also a former Chinese judge before being granted refugee status in Canada.
Li said he helped Hua escape to Canada.
A few weeks later, on November 25, 2022, Hua went out for another paddle, but this time he did not return. After a night of searching, his body was found on the shore of an island near the Sun.
RCMP saw no foul play at the time. But the powers that be did not know that Hua was in the crosshairs of a covert operation by China’s secret police.
“I fully understand the modus operandi of the Chinese Communist Party,” Li told Charade-Canada in an interview, referring to his previous work in China’s judicial system. “They weren’t a danger to kill someone. Of course, I don’t have direct evidence to prove his murder.”
Li said he is putting together several different salary dossiers and sending them to the RCMP.
Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian Ambassador to China, said it cannot be removed. “The Chinese regime is shameless and does not hesitate to use brutal means to achieve its goals.”
Eric told Radio-Canada that he suspected other teachers were keeping an eye on HUA in Canada.
“Based on the well-known working methods of the Chinese police, the party definitely has other agents in Canada, including other special forces,” he said. “I almost thought about this.”
The spy runs away
After several failed attempts to escape from China, it finally arrived in 2023
The world has a right to know what China’s secret police are saying, Eric said, adding that transparency actually buys him protection.
Meanwhile, the police investigation into Hua’s death is not officially closed because three years later, the BC Coroners service has not yet finished its report, which usually takes about 16 months.
Eric said he did not contact the Canadian police but did do it secretly and sent some documents to the Civil Rights Commission, the Canadian government’s investigation into foreign interference.
“There are some unusual features in this case that warrant further investigation,” he said.
