Chinese dissident says he was berated by ‘pro-regime’ interpreter for UK police | Police
A Chinese dissident who organized an anti-government protest in China after fleeing to England claimed that the “pro-regime” translator used by the British police force scolded him when he sought help.
Who is Hong Qi? made headlines last year After using his mobile phone to remotely project anti-regime slogans onto a building in his hometown of Chongqing while in England, he contacted the police after learning his bank accounts had been frozen.
The Chinese national called 101, the UK’s non-emergency number, on December 20 and asked to speak to the nearest police force through an interpreter, out of concern that he would have to sleep with his wife and two teenage daughters due to lack of money.
Qi, 43, claims that instead of seeking advice from Devon and Cornwall police, the interpreter assigned to the meeting launched a political tirade, asking him why he “didn’t like China” and mocking him for not having money.
Qi, who was staying in Exeter with his family, explained in the meeting that started at 14.54 and lasted 20 minutes that his bank accounts were frozen by Chinese authorities, so he could not cover the accommodation expenses of his wife and children.
According to Qi, the translator, who spoke with a mainland Chinese accent, interrupted the conversation to challenge him.
“China is so good, why did you go out?” the translator allegedly asked. “Did you come to seek political asylum? Did you bring your children here to suffer?”
Qi claimed that when he tried to convey the helplessness of his situation, the translator refused to convey the message to the police representative during the call.
“I will not translate your feelings,” the translator said, according to Qi. “For what reason should the British help you? If you have money, anywhere is fine.”
On January 21, 22 days after he made the complaint, Devon and Cornwall police informed Qi, who had recently been granted asylum in the UK, that responsibility for the interpreter fell to a contractor paid £130,000 a year to provide translation services.
The contractor did not respond to a request for comment. Police were unable to provide Qi with a copy of the recording despite requests. The Information Commissioner’s Office recognized the breach of power and issued a reprimand.
Qi’s claim will raise fears of widespread infiltration of the Chinese translation community by the United Front Work Department, an organ of the communist regime in China that is said to seek to suppress political dissent and shape opinion abroad.
A report sponsored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, declassified in February, found that the lack of Chinese language skills within the police was a risk, given the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to infiltrate the translation community and organized crime.
The report’s author, David Wilson, a former detective inspector and regional co-ordinator of the local task force on organized immigration crime at West Midlands police, said there was “too much consensus” about Mandarin interpreters in the UK.
He said: “The United Labor Department will take everyone to task. We have made sure that people never speak in front of interpreters. That’s why we have compromised. This is not unusual. Compromise will come from both the Chinese state and organized crime groups.”
Wilson said the solution was to increase the number of Mandarin speakers in British policing. Its report noted that officers sometimes had to rely on Google Translate to do their jobs.
At the recent trial of two men convicted of spying for China, including a UK Border Force officer, the court heard that eight suspects arrested in May 2024 as part of the alleged espionage ring had to be released because a shortage of translators could not translate the contents of their phones and laptops before the 14-day legal detention limit was reached. The suspects then left England.
Qi said he was at his worst after a meeting with his police interpreter. “To me, he was clearly pro-regime,” he said. “The police need to deal with this.”
Qi’s protest last August in Chongqing, a city of 30 million, was held on the eve of a major military parade and included slogans such as “Only without the Communist party can there be a new China” projected onto a building.
Police soon found the source of the projection in a hotel room. Qi later released video footage showing five police officers entering the hotel room, running to the window and finding the projector hidden behind a half-closed curtain.
Qi, who operated the projector and security camera from London, where he arrived four days ago, left a handwritten letter addressed to the officers on the coffee table. The statement said, “Even if you are the beneficiary of the system today, one day you will inevitably become the victim of these lands.”
One of Qi’s posts was viewed by 18 million people in four days.
Sam Dunning, director of research organization UK-China Transparency, said: “After the Second World War, Britain trained thousands of people in Russian language skills. Faced with what successive governments have all agreed are major challenges and threats from China, nothing remotely on this scale is being done today.”
A Devon and Cornwall police spokesman said: “Devon and Cornwall police’s professional standards department reviewed the complaint carefully, but as the interpreter was employed by a third party and not the police, no further action was taken.”
