Tsinghua University espionage case
U.S. Navy spy Li Ke and his wife Li You'an, since 1948, have been lurking at Tsinghua University, and during the incubation period at the school, the two of them, on the one hand, showed the image of an amiable and humble teacher, and on the other hand, they secretly leaked some intelligence to the U.S. Naval Intelligence Service.
So, were the two spies finally discovered? It was discovered, and what you may not expect is that the person who found out that Li Ke and Li You'an were spies was the father of Song Dandan's ex-husband Yingda, Yingruo cheng.
So how did Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke lurk in Tsinghua? How did Ying Ruocheng dig up these two spies? In the end, after Li Ke and his wife were sentenced, why were they directly released in advance? This article tells you the answer.
Li Ke, born in an ordinary family in Washington, D.C., because the family economic conditions are not good, therefore, Li Ke decided to sign up for the army after becoming an adult, at that time, just in the outbreak of World War II, the United States is also expanding the size of the army, coupled with Li Ke's physical fitness is also relatively good, therefore, he smoothly joined the US Marine Corps.
United States Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps, an amphibious assault force in the five independent services of the United States, is primarily responsible for using all fleet vessels of the U.S. Navy to reach the globe as quickly as possible for combat missions.
After joining the Marine Corps, Li Ke was just an ordinary soldier, but then, by chance, Li Ke's commander found out that he could speak Japanese, so he took him with him and made Li Ke a Japanese translator in the Naval Intelligence Department. It was also during his time as a Japanese translator that Li Ke met his wife, Li You'an, and the two got married not long after they met.
On September 2, 1945, with the formal signing of the Instrument of Surrender by Japan, World War II was declared over.
Japan signed the Instrument of Surrender in World War II
After the end of World War II, Li Ke and Li Youan went to their home universities for further studies.
Three years later, in 1948, Li Ke and Li You'an were preparing to come to China for further study, and this news was noticed by the US intelligence agencies. Subsequently, the relevant person in charge of the US Naval Intelligence Service found Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke, and after the two of them arrived in China, they should carefully observe everything around them and pass on some of the information they obtained to the relevant DEPARTMENTS. As soon as the Li Ke couple heard it, they knew that they had let the two of them be spies, and the two of them were not shocked, but showed unusual composure, because the Li Ke couple had systematically received training from the US Naval Intelligence Service during World War II, so the two of them directly agreed.
After that, the intelligence department assigned Li Ke and his wife a specific spy mission, the task is very simple, that is: let Li Ke and his wife often participate in social activities, exchange ideas with college students and colleagues, and if they find pro-American intellectuals, count their lists and give them to the relevant departments in the United States.
Apparently, the U.S. Intelligence Service was clever, and they didn't let Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke steal the intelligence directly, but let them count the lists of pro-American elements, and then send others to plot against these college students and these scholars.
After receiving the mission, Li Ke and Li Youan came to China to lurk.
At the end of 1948, Li Ke and his wife's first stop came to Shanghai, after arriving in Shanghai, the two of them lived for a while, felt that Shanghai was more chaotic, not very suitable for lurking, not very suitable for the development of pro-American college students, so the two of them immediately went to Beijing, after arriving in Beijing, Li Ke and Li Youan respectively got the opportunity to study at Tsinghua University and Yenching University, in addition, Li Ke and the two of them in addition to classes, but also served as a teacher of the Department of Literature of Tsinghua University Chinese, teaching Tsinghua students to learn foreign languages.
After settling down at Tsinghua University, the gentle-looking Li Ke and his wife got along with the teachers and students with a humble and amiable image, and the two of them often invited colleagues and classmates to their homes to eat and chat, just like that, two times, Li Ke and Li You'an mingled with the students and colleagues.
Because they are deeply loved by the teachers and students of the school, therefore, the teaching evaluation results of Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke are very high, and the two of them can get a bonus of $150 from Tsinghua University every month, and $150 was quite a lot in the 1950 era, and it should be known that at that time, the domestic Tsinghua professors had a monthly salary of less than $20.
These bonuses were fully utilized by Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke, and in the follow-up gatherings, the two of them often bought some gifts for the students and had a relationship with the students.
After meeting after meeting, Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke counted a list of pro-American and admiring intellectuals, and then handed the list to the U.S. Naval Intelligence Service.
In addition, in addition to developing informants, Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke also leaked some other intelligence of our party. In this way, the two of them pretended to be kind and friendly every day to teach and educate people in Tsinghua, and at night, they silently began to inquire about the intelligence of our army, and this situation continued until 1950.
In 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the US military ignored our repeated persuasion and insisted on stepping on our bottom line. Subsequently, after some decision-making by the great men, we Chinese the official entry of the People's Volunteer Army into the Korean War, and at the same time, the people in our country also began to take action, and the rich people of the whole country donated money and the money donated grain without money, and many people held up signs to encourage the volunteers to cheer up the volunteers.
The Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea
In this environment, the Li Kes felt that it was inconvenient to move, and it was difficult for the intelligence work to be carried out again, so the two of them decided to return to the United States quickly.
One day in November 1950, after some preparations, Li Ke and Li You'an packed their bags and prepared to leave the country.
However, just as the two of them went to collect their exit permits, they were told that they would have to wait a while before they could apply. When Li Ke heard the news, he immediately panicked, and he was worried that the true identities of himself and his wife would be revealed. Suddenly, his mood was out of control, on the way back to the dormitory, he and several students had an argument, after the dispute, in a hurry, Li Ke said a word to these students, and it was this sentence that aroused the suspicion of the students, which sentence? Li Ke said this sentence:
"Your faith is illusory, there is no light."
The surrounding students, after hearing Li Ke say this sentence, were stunned, because the views that Li Ke was expressing now were very different from the views he usually expressed. At this time, Li Ke also suddenly found that he had said the wrong thing, but he could not get it back.
This sentence attracted the special attention of a student, and this student was Ying Ruocheng.
Ying Ruocheng
Born in Beijing on June 21, 1929, Ying Ruocheng is a well-known Chinese performing artist, translator, drama director, and former executive director of the Chinese Dramatists Association.
At that time, YingRuocheng was only 22 years old, he was a student of the foreign Chinese of Tsinghua University, and he had many contacts with the spy Li Ke. Therefore, before that, Yingruocheng knew Li Ke very well, but Li Ke's words today made Yingruocheng feel that something was wrong.
After that, Yingruocheng found the president of Tsinghua University at the time, and repeated what Li Ke said on the campus to the principal, and after the principal listened, he asked Yingruocheng to go back to wait for the news, and as soon as Yingruocheng went out, the principal immediately called the people of the Ministry of State Security to explain the situation. After receiving this news, the people of our Ministry of State Security were not shocked, because during this time, the Ministry of State Security had also noticed That Li Ke's abnormality, but forced to find no evidence and did not directly arrest him, so people temporarily stuck Li Ke and Li You'an's application for departure.
The next day, the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of State Security went to Tsinghua University and found YingRuocheng and Yingruocheng's wife, Wu Shiliang, hoping that the two of them would help find evidence of Li Ke's crime. After hearing this news, although Ying Ruocheng was a little shocked, he still did not hesitate to agree, because Ying Ruocheng was a typical patriotic youth, although he had not received systematic agent training, he was willing to help find spies and contribute to the country.
Later, Ying Ruocheng also began to organize class reunions, and each party would invite Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke, and in this way, in one party after another, some evidence was slowly found.
In July of the following year, that is, in July 1951, with the help of YingRuocheng, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau had conclusive evidence that Li Ke and his wife were spies, and then went to the door to arrest them.
After Li Ke and his wife were arrested, the interrogator Qi Chao interrogated the two of them, and at first, Li Ke denied it in every way, always saying that he was just an ordinary professor who came to China and did not know the US intelligence department at all. In response to Li Ke's hard mouth, the interrogator Qi Chao was not in a hurry, he chose the way of "boiling eagles", and interrogated Li Ke and Li You'an separately every day, and interrogated them for more than ten days. In the course of these ten days of interrogation, Li Ke's answers to some repetitive questions were full of loopholes and inconsistencies. Later, under the patient persuasion of Qi Chao, Li Ke's attitude slowly began to change a little, and it was not long before Li Ke's wife Li You'an took the lead in admitting to her espionage behavior, and Li Ke finally admitted the fact that she was a spy after getting this news. After that, the interrogators immediately reported the results to the superiors.
In addition, when the day's interrogation was over, another thing happened, Li Ke was poisoned and almost lost his life.
What's going on here? It turned out that after Li Ke was interrogated and returned to the room, he picked up a few biscuits on the table and ate them, and just after eating for a while, his stomach began to hurt very much, and later, the public security personnel immediately sent him to the hospital for rescue. Eventually, after some examination by the doctor, it was confirmed that it was food poisoning, and if it came ten minutes late, the life would be gone.
After investigation, the person who poisoned Li Ke was another foreign spy, and they wanted to completely eliminate Li Ke so that Li Ke would not leak more information. After learning of this investigation, Li Ke was completely cold to the US Naval Intelligence Service, and he did not expect that the intelligence organization he worked so hard for wanted to poison himself.
Later, Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke were sent to prison for reform, and during the prison reform, the two of them also gained a deeper understanding of communist ideas. In addition, through the education of relevant departments, Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke also really knew the inside story of the Korean War, and knew that their US military was the unjust, and the Chinese People's Volunteer Army to resist the United States and aid Korea was to defend the homeland and belong to the just war.
After learning the truth, the two of them began to reflect on themselves, reflecting on whether what they had done was aiding and abetting abuse. After a period of reform and reflection, Ricker wrote a 70-page report, repenting of what he had done and saying that he had formally broken with U.S. naval intelligence.
On September 11, 1955, the Beijing Municipal High People's Court held a public trial of Li Ke and Li You'an, which was also the first trial of American spies in our country.
In the end, the court sentenced Li Ke to 6 years in prison and Li You'an to 4 years and 6 months in prison for espionage, and from now on, the two were released in court, and 2 of them were restricted to leave the country within 3 days.
So why should the court release it after it has pronounced its verdict?
The biggest reason is that the time period when Li Ke was sentenced at that time was exactly the eve of the Return of the United States to return to China, coupled with the espionage behavior of Li Ke and his wife, it did not have much impact on us, and they also realized their mistakes after transformation, so they simply put the two of them back directly, which is also a gesture to the US side.
After Li Ke and Li Youan returned to China, many American reporters rushed to find them for interviews, and these reporters thought that Li Ke and his wife would say some "anti-communist" things, but the results were unexpected. Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Li Ke said a lot of good things about communism, and they also expressed deep regret for their espionage. It can be seen that the two of them have indeed been successfully transformed.
Later, in order to repent of their espionage crimes, the couple also wrote a special book called "Self-Description of Two American Spies."
In fact, looking at this Tsinghua espionage case, although more than 70 years have passed, although Li Ke and Li You'an's espionage behavior has not caused too much harm to our side, although the 2 of them have been "transformed" successfully, we still cannot despise spies. Especially in this era, technology has become more advanced, and this means that spies have more means of stealing intelligence. At present, in addition to the need to attach great importance to the disclosure of relevant information in the military industry and high-tech fields, I think we must also guard against pro-AMERICAN elements in some colleges and universities, in short, we still hope that everyone will maintain a vigilant heart, maybe spies are around you and me.
Note: This article is the oral transcript of the video, unmodified, the literary level is not high, if you are uncomfortable to read, but also hope to contain! Thanks again!