<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="2" > preface</h1>
Pictured| Yang Qiqing
One day in September 1967, Zhang Wenqi, an investigator at the International Investigation Department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, urgently reported the situation to Yang Qiqing, vice minister of public security.
Listening to Zhang Wenqi's description, Yang Qiqing nervously paced back and forth, picked up the phone on the table and shouted:
"I am Yang Qiqing from the Ministry of Public Security, and I want to report the case to the premier."
Soon, the voice of Premier Zhou came from the other side of the phone, and Zhang Wenqi could hear it clearly from the side.
Yang Qiqing dropped the phone and said solemnly to Zhang Wenqi:
"Xiao Zhang, did you hear me?" The premier said that this case has a lot to do, and we must carry it through to the end and cooperate with the diplomatic struggle and the foreign trade struggle. ”
"I hear you."
Zhang Wenqi nodded seriously, and then quickly walked out of the gate of the Ministry of Public Security, and a silent battle was about to begin.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="133" two rats pulled out a spy case ></h1>
At the beginning of 1967, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.
Lin Hua, a customs officer at the airport customs entry, exit and exit inspection office, found a foreigner with two rats and felt a little strange.
Lin Hua immediately reported to the Guangzhou Customs and the Foreign Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and after the news reached Beijing, it attracted the attention of Zhang Wenqi, then an investigator of the International Investigation Department of the Beijing Public Security Bureau.
Zhang Wenqi then sent a letter to the Guangzhou Customs, asking that the two rats be detained, and that the two local rats in Guangzhou be re-captured and given to the foreigner and allowed to carry them out of the country.
After the security department detained the two rats, they were immediately sent to the Guangzhou Municipal Health and Quarantine Bureau for testing, and concluded that the two mice had different degrees of radioactive materials, and after comparing the data, they found that they were the same as the radioactive data of the northwest nuclear industry production base in China.
According to the analysis, the living area of these two mice may be an atomic industrial base in the northwest region of China.
Soon the investigation report about the foreigner was also sent to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The picture | old photo of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport
According to the data, this foreigner who carried two rats out of the country was an expert of China's Lanzhou Chemical Company, named George Watt, who recently approved his wife to visit his wife in China.
As early as November 25, 1964, the China Technology Import Corporation cooperated with the United Kingdom and West Germany V. G United (Multinational) Company signed a contract for complete chemical equipment (the total amount of the project is 20 million pounds, installed in Lanzhou).
After the contract was signed, V.G. sent a working group of experts, the leader of which was the British Fercy, and George Watt was one of the experts.
In view of the complexity of the case, Zhang Wenqi decided to take the initiative.
However, Zhang Wenqi took into account a little, if Watt is a "spy", although he has detained his two rats, it is difficult to ensure that he may still carry other intelligence on him, although at that time limited to diplomatic relations, Watt did not dare to blatantly pass on the news, but it is difficult to ensure that he did not sneak to do it, taking advantage of the gap between his wife's visits to China to pass on the information.
Of course, if it is directly detained, once no information is seized, then the arbitrary detention of foreigners is bound to have a greater international impact.
Zhang Wenqi found an old comrade in the bureau, who was also anxious to rub his hands, and later came up with an idea:
"Wen Qi, you went directly to the Ministry of Public Security to ask Vice Minister Yang Qiqing for instructions, and at this time you can only look for him."
Zhang Wenqi's eyes lit up.
One day in August 1967, Zhang Wenqi walked into the gate of the Ministry of Public Security, and when he saw Yang Qiqing, the two could not care about greetings, and Zhang Wenqi told Yang Qiqing about Watt's situation.
"Can't let go, can't let go, let go is a crime." Yang Qiqing paced back and forth, and after thinking about it repeatedly, he asked Zhang Wenqi: "Do you have any good methods?" ”
Picture | Yang Qiqing when he was young
"Just say you need a job, let him stay for the time being."
"Okay." Yang Qiqing nodded:
"Be gentle, don't hit the grass snake, you can let him meet with his wife, we will arrest him at the airport."
After Zhang Wenqi got up and resigned, Yang Qiqing instructed:
"You'd better contact the Foreign Ministry and listen to them."
Even if the time is tight, it is not possible to scare the snake at Watt, and it is necessary to put it in place in one step and sweep away the foreign agents centered on Watt.
Zhang Wenqi was very anxious, and there was not much time left for him.
Watt's application to go to Hong Kong several times in 1967 was rejected, and Zhang Wenqi also disguised himself as an expert to negotiate with Watt, saying that the progress of the project was tight and could not be separated from him.
Watt did not succeed in sending out the intelligence, so he had to adopt a second plan. Risking his wife to come to China to get it, the Chinese police deciphered the telegrams exchanged between the two men.
"Madame, two weeks, visiting relatives"
Mrs. Watt also wrote back:
"Madame flew to Lanzhou on the same day, carrying a six-year-old girl"
The | atomic bomb explosion scene
On September 5, 1967, Mrs. Watt applied to leave for China after living in China for a while. Watt intends to let his wife and daughter get to Shanghai via Beijing Capital Airport before leaving China.
After Zhang Wenqi learned of this news, he immediately sent public security cadres and policemen to quickly dispatch and stop Mrs. Watt, who was about to leave, at the capital airport.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="134" > shun vine to pull out the big fish</h1>
On September 5, 1967, Beijing Customs detained Mrs. Watt and her party, and from the plywood behind the picture frame she carried, dozens of printed pieces of information, as well as transmitters and film rolls, were seized.
Some of the contents are the details of China's atomic bomb experimental tasks, and after the film is printed out, it is sent to the relevant departments for appraisal; some of the contents are the topographic map of the lanzhou military region's combat readiness and the topographic map of the Lanzhou military airfield.
According to this, Watt himself is a trained agent.
In the face of conclusive evidence, Mrs. Watt was surprised, claiming that these things were not hers, but things brought out by another engineer of the company, Mrs. Peter Di Catto, and she did not know it.
In order to be able to pull out the big fish, Zhang Wenqi told Mrs. Watt that he believed that they were innocent and deceived by bad people, and allowed him to go abroad, but Watt could not leave, and Zhang Wenqi arranged for him to live in Room 305 of the Beijing Hotel.
As soon as Mrs. Watt left for Shanghai, she immediately sent a clear telegram:
"Watt Is Healthy, Dikat is sick"
In fact, Zhang Wenqi captured Peter Dikat based on Mrs. Watt's account, and Dicat was naturally a secret agent, but he was not the person in charge of the operation.
Mrs. Watt carries a lot of information about China's northwest nuclear industry, and combined with the radioactive materials found on the rats before, it is clear that the enemy wants to understand the secrets of China's atomic energy development through these materials.
Picture | old photo of Yang Qiqing's family of three
Without further ado, Zhang Wenqi immediately reported Yang Qiqing.
Feeling that the stakes were high, Yang Qiqing quickly called premier Zhou, who quickly gave instructions.
Soon lanzhou cracked a foreign expert who was detained by our side when a scientific research unit collected radio telemetry frequencies for our nuclear warhead.
Perhaps these agents also sensed that something was wrong.
One day, Watt, who was staying at the Beijing Hotel, received a phone call from a man named Von Hsu Linde.
What Watt didn't know was that Zhou Xiaoming, the Chinese translator next to him, had already reported the name Xu Linde to the public security organs, and Zhou Xiaoming had been bribed by Watt before, and now he was guilty of crime.
Xu Linde is the supreme commander of this foreign spy organization in China.
Zhang Wenqi keenly realized that Xu Linde was the big fish he wanted to investigate, but even at this time, he still couldn't fight the grass and snake, and had to wait for his enemy to further expose the horse's feet.
Schellingd ventured to call Watt to resist the pressure and tell him that he was going to ask the British Foreign Office to pressure him.
At the same time, Xu Linde also realized that the mission had failed, but he wanted to recover the loss and fight for his own opportunities.
Therefore, Xu Linde used the excuse to visit Di Carter, secretly carrying the news in the food he sent, and he wanted Di Carter to play the last value.
Later, the Lanzhou police found this set of messages in xu long's canned goods sent to Dikat:
What Mrs. Watt brought out, has been seized, you have failed, are you willing to accept the death sentence?
Otherwise you're killing yourself, nylon rope in a butter barrel.
Write a will to a loved one and a letter of complaint to the International Court of Justice accusing China of human rights abuses and send it out.
Xu Linde ordered Di Carter to commit suicide, and the information was written in a unique way, with no segments and no branches, all in capital letters, typical of the secret agent's method.
Dikat did prepare to commit suicide at first, writing his will and letter of complaint as a treatment, rolling it into 36 paper balls and throwing them out the window, some of which Hsulind had picked up.
Fortunately, Xu Linde did not escape from ascension later, and Di Carter did not commit suicide, but instead made a contribution to the report.
Picture | old photo of Yang Qiqing and his wife
All of Xu Linde's plans were to fight for opportunities for his own escape.
But he didn't succeed.
< h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="135" > three schemes to carry out arrests</h1>
Zhang Wenqi, as an expert representative, went to Lanzhou with the expert representative group of the China Import and Export Corporation to investigate Xu Linde's true identity.
However, just as the so-called "Skynet is restored and not leaked", Xu Linde's whereabouts are not difficult to find, after comparison, Zhang Wenqi learned that Xu Linde was very active during his time in Lanzhou, often going around the forbidden area alone to collect intelligence.
After Watt and Decathlon were arrested one after another, Xu Linde stepped up the work of gathering intelligence and was ready to flee at any time.
The Beijing police, represented by Zhang Wenqi, quickly determined the arrest plan for Xu Linde:
First, carry suspicious items with you, detain the items, and let people leave the country.
Second, do not carry suspicious items, release people and release objects.
Third, carry intelligence (need to be identified), detain people and objects.
In December 1967, when there was a few snows scattered at the Beijing airport, Zhang Wenqi and several investigators braved the snow and wind to wait here.
At 10:22 p.m., Xu Linde got off the plane, Zhang Wenqi walked up to arrest him, and Xu Linde only said one sentence after his arrest:
"I didn't expect that."
At the airport checkpoint, Zhang Wenqi searched Xu Linde's package and found a large amount of information written in English secret language, up to 72 pages long, and among the items Xu Linde carried, he also found several pairs of gloves and handkerchiefs, which were sealed with plastic bags, and were tested to have dust near the atomic bomb explosion, as well as some microfilm.
Through these, foreign countries can analyze the key data of China's atomic bomb explosion.
After the case was tried, the identities of Watt and Xu Linde also surfaced.
Figure | model of the atomic bomb
On October 16, 1964, China exploded its first atomic bomb.
In fact, China's research and development process for the nuclear industry as a whole is in the three layers of protection inside and three layers outside, for the sake of confidentiality, China's first atomic bomb is code-named "Miss Qiu".
Some of these key data are represented by code names.
"At 8 o'clock, Lao Qiu went to the upper room and began to comb his braids." "At 10:30, finish your braids." "At 11:30, the first check was completed, and the results were normal."
Because the atomic bomb looks like a huge ball, it is called "Miss Qiu". The container containing the atomic bomb, called the "dresser", connects the dense leads of the atomic bomb detonator, called the "braid".
The atomic bomb assembly code name is "dressing", the atomic bomb ground assembly room is code named "lower room", the closed workshop on the tower is code named "upper room", the meteorological code name is "blood pressure", and the atomic bomb detonation time code name is "zero hour".
Also because of the layers of secrecy, Qian Sanqiang, who is known as the father of the atomic bomb, actually learned about this news 1 hour before the explosion.
This is true for one's own people, let alone foreign secret services.
As early as the beginning of China's nuclear industry, foreign agents paid attention, but no matter how they checked, the news about China's nuclear industry could not be found at all.
The news spied on by foreign secret service agencies on the development of China's nuclear submarines can only be judged through scattered data, and the conclusions are not accurate, and cannot form effective scientific conclusions.
So they focused on the hydrogen bomb.
Western intelligence agencies, specifically developed a plan called "Operation John Cow", using the November 25, 1964, China Technology Import Corporation, together with the United Kingdom and West Germany V. G's colleagues who signed a contract for chemical plants infiltrated the team of agents into The Panel of Experts into China.
The German Xu Linde was one of the agents who went to China as a member of the expert group and the person in charge of the operation, and his main tasks were:
First, under the cover of "unpacking inspector" and "on-site secretary", direct the intelligence activity group operations against China's nuclear industry.
Second, engage in espionage activities to subvert new China.
Third, stealing important information on china's military, political, economic and great proletarian cultural revolution, and actively serving the aggression and war of US imperialism (the original words of the document of that year)
Thanks to the efforts of Zhang Wenqi and other public security cadres and policemen, the secret service organization headed by Xu Linde was almost uprooted.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="136" ></h1>
Zhang Wenqi, through Foreign Trade Minister Li Qiang, reported the progress of the case to Premier Zhou, and the final result was that the personnel of the foreign company in China left China within a time limit, immediately abrogated the signed contract, and demanded that they compensate for economic losses.
But the case is not as simple as Li Qiang thought.
"Minister Li, I mean the espionage of these foreigners, I examined Xu Linde, and his problem is worse than Watt's, and the secrets, intelligence, and materials related to the atomic bomb, as well as the secret writing tools and letters, have all been obtained."
Xu Linde, Watt and other people have British passports, coupled with the diplomatic environment at that time, in many Western countries, only the United Kingdom and China have established diplomatic relations, if handled too much, it is easy to affect the relations between the two countries.
Li Qiang's eyebrows twisted into a knot, he picked up the phone on the desk, dialed Premier Zhou's office, Li Qiang simply said a sentence or two, and handed the phone to Zhang Wenqi:
"Tell Premier Zhou directly."
The voice of the premier came from the other end of the phone: "I am Zhou Enlai." ”
Pictured | Premier Zhou
After several days of hard work, Zhang Wenqi heard this voice and almost cried out excitedly, he was facing not only the enemy, but also the obstacles he had suffered in the special environment.
Zhang Wenqi tried to calm himself down, and he answered the phone: "Premier I am an investigator at the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. ”
Perhaps the mood still did not calm down, Zhang Wenqi said twice, and premier Zhou's laughter came from inside: "You talk about the specifics." ”
Zhang Wenqi simply told Premier Zhou about the two spies on the phone, and Premier Zhou's voice came from the other end of the phone:
"You have worked hard, you must carry the case to the end, cooperate with the struggle on the diplomatic front and the foreign trade front, and wish you greater victories."
But even Premier Zhou, in the face of such a difficult case, there are many key links to consider, and the phone end is moaning repeatedly:
"The handling opinions of the case have been sent, please hurry up and approve ..."
"Please give me a little time to think about things, okay?"
However, Premier Zhou did not let Zhang Wenqi wait too long, and soon Premier Zhou's office sent the approval documents:
"Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau: Agree with Comrade Zhang Wenqi's opinion on the handling of the international espionage case..."
On March 15, 1968, the Lanzhou Intermediate People's Court conducted a trial in accordance with the law, sentenced George Watt to three years in prison, and announced the deportation of Peter Dicat.
Of course, in the newspapers of the time, there was a person whose name was not mentioned.
This man is Xu Linde.
As the head of the secret service organization, Xu Linde was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Of course, at the same time, chinese informants who provided intelligence were also arrested, and for these foreign secret services, these Chinese informants were basically of little value, and both sides were only interested in a relationship.
The United States, which has suffered a dumb loss, does not even dare to let go of a fart, nor does it dare to admit that this is their person, the British side reacts relatively largely, after all, these people hold British passports, but also enter China in the name of experts, in the case of unclear information, they accuse China of persecuting "scientific and technological experts".
The | atomic bomb exploded
The Cambridge History of China also mentions this case, but only changed two words, changing "persecution" to "seizure".
But even so, the infiltration of Western spy agencies into China has never stopped, which is one of the things we need to be vigilant about.
In fact, sometimes we do not love our motherland, but due to ideological indifference, it leads to the leakage of secrets, which is by no means an isolated case.
What is more crucial is that in today's modern scientific and technological progress, espionage activities have shown more secretive characteristics, making people invincible. Especially in the case of weak ideological education of contemporary youth, it is easy to be deceived.
We need to pay attention to the fact that at any time, there can be no fluke mentality.