Daughter of China: A True Story of Love and Betrayal

When they met, Xu Meihong was 26, a Chinese army officer, spy, and shining example of her country's best and brightest. Larry Engelmann, 47, was a rumpled history professor from California visiting China (just 10 months before the massacre at Tiananmen Square) as part of an academic exchange program. A true innocent abroad, he immediately began taking hundreds of pictures, showed his students subversive American films, and generally behaved as if he were in a free country.The Chinese viewed the oblivious professor with tremendous suspicion, and assigned one of their top officers, Xu Meihong, to spy on the suspected CIA agent. The spy fell in love with the professor, however, and thus began a love story that should have ended in tragedy. When their friendship was discovered, Meihong was arrested, beaten and interrogated for weeks that added up to months. Engelmann was accused of raping Xu Meihong, shown her written accusation (forged by her interrogators), and told to leave the country or face immediate arrest.
This is the story of an impossible love affair, and also a rare and dramatic depiction of life inside the rigid walls of Communist China. Daughter of China reveals the remarkable story of Xu Meihong's inculcation into the Chinese Communist system and her ultimate escape. It traces in fascinating detail her development from patriotic child--willing to betray friend or family member to prove her loyalty to the Republic--to her commissioning as an officer for the People's Republic Army, and the even more extraordinary friendship that managed to erode her seemingly unshakable confidence in that way of life. Unique in its scope and unforgettable in its candor, Daughter ofChina is a suspenseful true account of love and betrayal that reads like the best fiction.