An NPR investigation uncovers a web of deceit surrounding Chinese dissident Wang Jingyu, who claimed to be a victim of the Chinese government's harassment. Reporters covering Wang found themselves named in bomb threats, leading to suspicions about the Chinese government's involvement. However, a deeper look reveals a possible con involving Wang, raising questions about the truth behind his claims and the motives behind the bomb threats.
Reporters covering a Chinese dissident in Europe were accused of making bomb threats . An NPR investigation now has them wondering if it was the work of the Chinese government or someone else. Wang Jingyu speaks during an interview in Ukraine on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Wang told reporters that the Chinese government constantly harassed and threatened him. But an NPR investigation linked Wang to an elaborate con involving false claims of Chinese Communist Party repression.
Wang insists he is a genuine victim and had no involvement in the scheme.AMSTERDAM – Reporting on Wang Jingyu, a Chinese celebrity dissident, can be perplexing, stressful and scary. Ask Marije Vlaskamp, a correspondent with de Volkskrant, a leading Dutch daily newspaper. In the fall of 2022, Vlaskamp said Wang told her that people he thought were working for the Chinese government were harassing and threatening him. Wang asked if she would publish a story, but Vlaskamp declined. 'He was giving me lots and lots of information in a really chaotic way,' Vlaskamp told NPR in an interview last month.'It was so difficult to check everything he was saying and so time consuming, also a lot of . . . information he (gave) me was really not a news story.' The Chinese embassy in the Hague told Dutch police they had received a bomb threat in Wang and Vlaskamp's names. Police cordoned off the area. Vlaskamp and Wang denied any involvement. Another bomb threat in their names followed at the Chinese embassy in Norway. 'Can I still travel abroad or will my name end up on international wanted lists as a terrorism suspect?' she wrote in a 6,300-word article. Vlaskamp said she welcomed the revelations about Wang because they provided the possibility that someone other than the Chinese government might have targeted her.Vlaskamp has since reviewed her reporting on Wang, but says that – more than two years on – she still isn't certain who made the bomb threats. 'It's really tempting to speculate about Wang, but I'm not going to do that,' she said.'The last time I was investigating what Wang was alleging I got bomb threats in my own name.'De Volksrant still stands by its reporting about the bomb threats, but no longer considers Wang a reliable source on the topic of China's targeting of critics overseas. Vlaskamp was not the only person who wrote about Wang Jingyu and also found themself named in bomb threats. Another was Su, a self-described activist who also works as a freelance reporter with Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news service funded by the U.S. government. In Congressional testimony last year, Su said the Chinese government has harassed her for more than a decade. She said she's been targeted with everything from fake sex ads – which drew men to her door – to death and rape threats.Looking back, Su also says Wang tricked her. For instance, she says Wang sent her screenshots in 2023 indicating that Gao was heading to Germany to kill a fellow dissident. Gao shows a string of text messages between him and his onetime friend, Wang Jingyu. One message from Wang reads,'Look at how bad the Communist bandits are.'Su, who lives in Berlin, says she notified German police out of concern. Police arrested Gao at a train station in the German city of Essen and – soon afterward – released him. Su says she now thinks Wang used her to get police to arrest his accuser.'This is not true,' responded Wang, who has said he believes Gao was conned, but insists he had nothing to do with it.'I didn't tell her or ask her to call the police.' Su says Wang also told her his accuser had handed over his family to the Communist Party. This was another astonishing claim that NPR investigated and debunked. But Su – who had her own personal dispute with Gao – says she believed it. In fact, she joined Wang in an X Spaces conversation and repeated some of his false claims about Gao.'Now, I know Wang is a liar,' Su told NPR. Su has apologized to Wang's accuser, and to NPR for declining to answer questions about Wang earlier. At the time, Su said she would only meet with NPR in Berlin if a German police officer were present. 'I would like to say sorry to you,' Su told NPR last year,'because, I didn't trust you before (your) report was published.' Su says she didn't trust NPR because Wang suggested she shouldn't. She says she now thinks Wang was trying to keep her and NPR from sharing information.Su says that after she was named in bomb threats, she felt sympathy for Wang. She says she should've been more skeptical.Wang says Su's various claims are false. For instance, he says he never told Su that his accuser had handed his family over to the Communist Party, but he did tell NPR this
CHINA DISSIDENT BOMB THREATS CON DE CEPTION JOURNALISM HARASSMENT
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