Du Bin, a Writer and producer who worked for the Beijing bureau of the New York Times, was recently released after being detained by Beijing public security officials for more than a month on suspicion of provocation and harassment. In an exclusive interview, he revealed that the public security authorities had focused on investigating his motives for publishing his books and whether he was involved in foreign funding.
Du Bin was suddenly detained by Beijing police last month and later confirmed to be in criminal detention at the Daxing Detention Center on suspicion of provocation and nuisance, causing concern and speculation. He was interviewed by Radio Free Asia on Tuesday to solve the mystery himself.
The main question is how my book manuscript was given to the publisher. How many copies were printed, how much money was made, why write this book, from the first book I wrote in 2007 to start the investigation, began to interrogate, each book what was written, how many copies were printed, one by one in the interrogation.”
The direction of the public security investigation also involves Du Bin’s financial situation, focusing on the investigation of whether he has received funds from abroad.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. They checked half a day and could not find anything.”
The public security officer asked Du Bin : “Can you compare with Liu Xiaobo?”
Du Bin said that he was not treated inhumanely during his detention, but the public security officers were not very friendly to him.
Du Bin: “I am still more polite. They probably saw that I was in financial straits, not married and renting a very poor house, so they hit me and said, ‘Can you compare with Liu Xiaobo? I said, ‘I can’t compare with him.’ Later, he said, ‘You are like a clown,’ and I said right. Maybe it’s to combat my arrogance.”
Du Bin, 48, a former photographer for The New York Times in Beijing, has focused on historical research in recent years, writing “The Tiananmen Massacre,” said to be the first book on the June Fourth Incident to be written by someone in China. His 2014 book, “Vaginal Coma: Testimony of Torture Survivors at the Masanjia Women’s Labor Camp,” exposes the brutal abuse of visitors at the Masanjia Women’s Labor Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning province, and was the focus of questioning by Beijing security officials during their detention.
Du Bin: “They said, “How did you get the content of this book? I said, “I found the other victims through my friend Liu Hua, and I found other victims through the victims, and I wrote the book based on this information and on their oral accounts. They said, “How can you prove that this is all true? I said, “All the things in it corroborate each other, and I think it’s true.”
He said that after several interrogations, the public security officials could not find incriminating evidence.
Du Bin: “On the 37th day, the prosecutor’s office came to arraign me and asked one question, ‘Do you think you are guilty? I told this prosecutor, ‘I think I am not guilty. My books were published in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and these were normal and legal publishing practices, and they did not constitute provocation, and my financial situation and royalty income were normal, and there was nothing illegal about them.”
Du Bin insisted on publishing the new book as originally planned
Although released, but Du Bin still have to accept a year “bail pending trial. He stressed that his new book, entitled “Red Terror: Lenin’s Communist Experiment,” will be published this month as scheduled.
Hu Jia, a Beijing-based human rights activist, believes that the content of Du Bin’s work is based on the realities of the underclass. The fact that he was released is the best proof of this.
Hu Jia: “To some extent, it also proves that there is no problem with Dubin. If you want to give him a transfer of charges are very difficult and difficult. People write these things do not involve state secrets, is a very real social problems. To ‘Ma Sanjia’ for example, it is a response to the grassroots of the real message of the victims, Dubin is just helping those people voice, and even Dubin did not make any comments, to ‘provocation’ to combat him is too far-fetched. “
In 2013, he was arrested by authorities shortly after his documentary was screened and released after 37 days in detention.
(Original title: Suspected of being manipulated by an overseas organization to publish a book, writer Du Bin was detained for more than a month and finally released)
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