Harry Wu and Chinese Police

Police anywhere in this world are not prone to being nice to their own arrested citizens, not least in the case of China.

In an account about his arrest in 1995 on espionage charges, Harry Wu described one of his encounters with what he described as "a snarling local police officer".

"I just want to read the newspaper," I said, prodding him a little, but he looked at me with the surly face of authority that says, "I could stick a hot poker between your ribs right now, and nobody could stop me." Every Chinese knows that look.