TORONTO - Han Guangsheng, a 52-year-old former Judiciary Bureau Chief in China, knew he was going out on a limb last week when he approached The Epoch Times, becoming the fourth in a recent string of high-profile public defections from China, and the first would-be defector to Canada.
Han is an accused traitor in his homeland. In Canada, he is considered a willful accomplice to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes against humanity. Han fears that he may be deported back to China, where he says he could face incarceration. He knows that speaking up could endanger his own life as well as that of his family.
"Ultimately, if I have to pay the price with my life, I believe it is worthwhile."
And so, this week Han approached The Epoch Times to warn Canada about the human rights abuses still rampant in China. In a five-hour interview with The Times and The Canadian Press in a Toronto hotel room, his story unfolds.
After graduating from Nankai University in Tianjin City in 1982, Han was assigned by the government to work in the Shengyang’s Public Security Bureau (PSB). By 1992 he had quickly ascended to the role Deputy Chief. After a lateral move to Deputy Chief of the Judiciary Bureau in 1996, he was promoted to Shenyang’s Judiciary Bureau Chief in 1999.
Han said he was full of ambition and hope to serve the communist party and the country when he was young. He saw his job as an opportunity to uphold justice and do good. But with the 1989 student massacre, his perspectives began to shift.
In 1999, Han was appointed to oversee two jails and four labour camps in Northeastern China. That same year, China began a nation-wide persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong adherents were arrested and detained without trial, many of them under Han’s jurisdiction.
Like the other Chinese defectors to surface recently, Han could not in good conscience participate in persecuting Falun Gong. Although not a believer in the practice himself, Han said he knew that Falun Gong practitioners were peaceful and had broken no laws.
"I did whatever I could within my abilities to take care of them."
Han likens himself to Oskar Schindler, who helped to rescue Jews under Nazi rule in Germany and was portrayed in the film Schindler’s List.
He claims that he forbid any beating and abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in his labour camps, three of which held Falun Gong practitioners for either brainwashing classes or labour camp sentences issued with no legal procedure.
Han says he helped gain the early release of 159 female Falun Gong practitioners from one of his labour camps and fired one deputy chief who allowed the electric shock torture of a 15-year-old female Falun Gong practitioner in the Longshan Labour Camp.
In late 2000, Han says he spoke with two women who were among ten that had been recently transferred from the notorious Masanjia Labor Camp, the only camp in Shenyang City not overseen by Han.
He said the women told him of torture with electric batons, piercing needles into selected points on the body and being forced to do pushups on ice in freezing weather, all in an effort to have them give up their practice in Falun Gong. Han passed on their written complaints to the provincial Judiciary Department Chief overseeing the Masanjia Labor Camp, to the dislike of higher up officials.
Despite his efforts to intervene against the treatment of Falun Gong, some Falun Gong practitioners were tortured in his jurisdiction. Han said he tried to stop every case of abuse that he became aware of, but that he did not know of all that was going on. This fact would come back to haunt him.
Unable to carry on and with his conscience weighing heavily on him, Han was looking for the opportune time to defect. It came in 2001 on a trip to Toronto.
Immediately after he arrived in Toronto, he sent a fax to his superiors in China announcing his resignation from the communist party and from his job.
"There is too much darkness and cruelty in the official circle," he wrote in his letter of resignation.
His wife, still in China, was immediately put under surveillance and interrogated about Han’s defection.
In 2002, he applied for refugee status. He was refused on April 21 of this year after three hearings.
Refugee board adjudicator Tom Pinkney ruled that due to his “significant leadership position,” Han was responsible for the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners that he knew of.
“There are serious reasons for considering that [Han] is an accomplice to these crimes against humanity,” Pinkney wrote, noting the number of accounts of torture that took place in the labour camps and prisons Han oversaw.
Joel Etienne, a Toronto immigration lawyer representing the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong said the NGO is working to intervene in support of Han’s appeal.
Etienne says that although crimes against humanity are taking place in China, because orders related to Falun Gong are coming directly from the top leaders of the communist party, it is not reasonable for Han to have stopped all the persecution around him.
“How can officials have the strength to stand up against these criminal orders from oppressive governments if they have no people, country or justice to turn to?” Etienne said.
Han says that Chinese government agencies under the control of the communist party are automatically put in a position where they are forced to persecute civilians. He says the distinction should be “if a person is actively involved in following the [communist] party to persecute the people or otherwise.”
“Is a person trying to protect the people within his means? There should be a difference between such cases.”
In addition to shedding light on the torture of Falun Gong practitioners in China, Han has also backed the claims of another recent defector about China’s spying activities in western countries, including Canada.
Just weeks ago, another Chinese police officer in charge of persecuting Falun Gong in China smuggled out hundreds of spy reports from Chinese underground operatives stationed overseas. That man, Hao Fengjun, estimated that 1,000 Chinese spies may be operating in Canada.
Although Han was not directly in charge of the intelligence gathering, his years in the system helped him surmise a detailed picture of China’s espionage activities.
Han says China is keen on political intelligence as well as commercial intelligence, such as science and technology.
Han says China collects intelligence in a number of ways, including through:
1. The staff of Chinese Embassies and Consulates
2. Public Security Bureau (PSB) staff disguised as business executives
3. Reporters from Chinese state run media
4. Visiting scholars and various industry experts
5. Visiting delegations
Han once encountered purported a business researcher at a restaurant in Toronto’s East Chinatown who revealed himself to Han as an agent of the National Security Bureau from Han's home province of Liaoning. The encounter prompted Han to change his address.
According to Han, even western government officials visiting China on trade missions would be subject to monitoring by planted microphones, clandestine luggage searches and other means.
Han says he has been labeled a traitor of China by his superiors since he defected. But Han strongly disagrees.
“The CCP is only a political power ruling China right now, it cannot represent China or its people. It is only ruling China, and its life is limited, but as a nation and a race, the Chinese people are forever.”
Han says, “I truly love my home, my country, and I truly, truly love my people. I only hope that more people can understand this point.”
Whether Han will have to face his friends and enemies in China remains to be seen. His application for refugee status is on appeal at the Federal Court.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not return calls.
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