Man of mysteries: Yang Hengjun, his spy fiction and China’s accusations of espionage
The Australian blogger has faced protracted interrogations, his hands and feet shackled as he is repeatedly told he faces execution
In the first chapter of Yang Hengjun’s breathless first spy novel, Fatal Weakness, his protagonist, Yang Wenfeng, is hauled in by police for questioning.
The officers are cliched in their zealotry: “You’ve spent time in America; they say people there only tell the truth when talking to their priests and their psychologists, but lie when talking to police, if they talk at all. I have to warn you, this is China, where the people tell the police and The Party the truth.”