In this incredible report, we follow the attempts of China’s secret police, operating illegally in France, to deport a Chinese dissent.
Ling, 26, made the mistake of posting a YouTube video criticising the Chinese government. It was only seen by 80 people but that was enough. First the embassy confiscated his passport and would only return it to him if he report to a Chinese restaurant in Aubervilles that is really a secret police station. There he is ordered to get into a car, driven straight to Charles de Gaulle airport, and surrounded by secret policemen, pressured into boarding a plane. Luckily our team was able to intervene and he goes into hiding but the nightmare doesn’t end there. Over the next few days, Ling receives 30 calls and over a hundreds of threatening messages ordering him to return home. His family in China are arrested and tortured. One message reads “Your brother’s leg is broken. Now I’m going to break the other one.. Are you going to cooperate or not?” His family in China also send messages begging him to obey and return.
For Ling, the forced return didn’t go as planned by Beijing. After all this, Ling decided to sue persons unknown for attempted abduction. In China, images of people convinced or forced to return from abroad are regularly broadcast in the media. In the past 10 years, 12 000 people have been brought back to China. The scenario is always the same: arrest, filmed confession, and detention.