Recent reports by multiple French media outlets have highlighted the case of Chinese dissident Ling Huazhan, who narrowly escaped being repatriated by Chinese Communist Party agents in France. Ling Huazhan recently spoke in detail during an interview with New Tang Dynasty Television about the threats and coercion he faced from Chinese agents, as well as the details of his detention, beatings, and torture. He urged the French government to enforce the law and arrest, as well as expel, the Chinese spies and overseas police who engage in cross-border repression of dissidents.
Ling Huazhan mentioned, “I wrote some anti-Xi Jinping remarks in a restroom in Shanghai, China. Later, I participated in the filming of a documentary about the Tiananmen Square protests with Wang Jingyu.” This drew the attention of the Chinese authorities to him.
In February last year, “I was still in the Netherlands at the time. Wang Jingyu brought a German journalist to The Hague to film a protest outside the Chinese Embassy.”
A few months later, Chinese agents contacted Ling Huazhan online. On June 5th, a person named Zhang Peng first contacted him on Telegram, “demanding that I cooperate with them. At that time, they threatened my family and even offered me money, which I didn’t have, so I agreed to work with them.”
“He showed me his diplomatic passport, which had a sum of money in euros on it,” Ling Huazhan said. “He said that as long as I cooperated with them, I would receive this money.”
“He transferred 100,000 euros to me via PayPal,” he said. “They demanded that I monitor Wang Jingyu more, book hotels in the Netherlands posing as Wang Jingyu and another dissident, Su Yutong, claiming there were bombs, and extract Wang Jingyu’s address in the Netherlands.”
Ling Huazhan felt uneasy about the money he received. “I felt guilty about accepting that money because it seemed too easy, and I was involved in criminal activities in the European Union.”
“Also, I believe the Communist Party cannot be trusted because they can abandon you at any time. I feel that the Chinese Communist Party is a regime of lies.”
“On September 6th, I went to the German Federal Police and confessed, providing them with a list of spies.”
“I posted about this process on Twitter, which angered the CCP. They didn’t accept this ‘traitor’ and found a way to deceive me into coming to France.”
From February to March 2024, after arriving in France, Ling Huazhan was subjected to “education” by the “Charity Group” and the overseas police of the CCP.
“These actions were taken by Dong Hao’s ‘Charity Group’ and the overseas police bureau (they organized). They illegally detained me, beat me, and made me receive ‘education’ at the Yunnan Sanhe Restaurant and Little Sichuan Restaurant in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.”
“Ouyang Ping dragged me to that place, as you may have seen, which was also reported by a French television station. He used Sichuan peppercorns and chili, rubbing them on my face, saying he had a peppercorn in his hand with a glove, rubbing it on my face and inside my pants. Then they locked me inside their restaurant. I also recorded a video at that time.”
On March 22nd, seven CCP members brought 26-year-old Ling Huazhan to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, intending to forcibly put him on a flight to Guangzhou that same day. After retrieving his passport confiscated by the CCP before, Ling Huazhan escaped at the moment of boarding, later receiving timely assistance from Wang Jingyu and a French journalist.
“I had French media film their cross-border repression, cross-border activities at Charles de Gaulle Airport, and the cross-border repatriation video of me. And all the relevant evidence was filmed and exposed on French television. They were very angry about this.”
Afterward, “they still wanted to force me to continue cooperating with them, creating videos where I admit that I was directed by the French journalist and Wang Jingyu, all of which were fabricated. I was supposed to admit that the French Charity Group helped me and that going to the restaurant was a provocation, demanding 1000 euros. They even wanted me to write an email stating that everything I did was voluntary.”
“And this email was sent to an official of the French Ministry of the Interior.”
“By around April 13th, they used my brother to threaten me into admitting certain things. I was furious and impulsively went to their restaurant to seek an explanation, telling them not to harm my brother.”
“Unexpectedly, Ouyang Ping, the CCP’s overseas police chief at Little Sichuan Restaurant, and someone named Yang Yuehua snatched my phone. This phone had been given to me by the French intelligence agency DGSI.”
“Later, I went to both restaurants to demand they return my phone.”
“Unexpectedly, on April 19th, Chen Yujie, the deputy chief of the overseas police at Yunnan Sanhe Restaurant, had two waiters try to take away my glasses, claiming my glasses had a miniature camera.”
“When they knocked my glasses to the ground, and I tried to pick them up, they instructed the waiters to use violence to drive me out, assaulting me. I took some defensive measures, but they still forced me out of the restaurant.”
“They even had a passerby make a false report to the police, saying that I had assaulted them first. I explained to the police and the French police station, and only then was I released.”
Ling Huazhan is worried about the persecution his family faces in China.
“My relatives told me that my brother had been taken to a national security detention center in Zhanjiang by them. One of my relatives was taken to Spain by them. After I met him in Spain, I don’t know his whereabouts now, he may have also been brought to France by them, and I don’t know where he is.”
Faced with various actions by the CCP in France, “I am very shocked,” he said, “because France is a democratic and free country. They treated me this way and used a lot of financial resources to suppress voices opposing the CCP overseas. I feel very unfortunate, and I don’t understand why they dare to do this in France, but I am very shocked and scared.”
Ling Huazhan emphasized that before deciding to surrender in Germany, “I didn’t think it through that much. I didn’t consider that the CCP would use so much force to suppress me. I just hoped the German government could protect me.”
He also pointed out that in France, the CCP continues to persecute other dissidents, “Not only did they do this to me, in May, they arrested a Uighur and detained him. They used a black car with a license plate from the Chinese Embassy, drove to the refugee flats to arrest him. I feel they are particularly arrogant, daring to arrest people on the streets of France.”
“I urge the French government and the French police to arrest Chinese spies and overseas CCP police in accordance with the law and expel those who need to be expelled. Internationally, the efforts to combat overseas CCP police must be strengthened.”
Ling Huazhan reiterated his commitment to exposing the atrocities of the CCP, “I still insist that the CCP is a lying country, and there is no other country in the world that has a specialized propaganda agency to deceive its people. They are a regime of lies, a dictatorship.”