It wasn’t that she considered the information particularly confidential from her former colleague, but she didn’t want to shatter yet another image of someone Darnell appeared to respect; Lae Chang.
Chapter 21
The head office of Springfield Structures is located on East Pine Street, less than four miles from Oak Ridge Cemetery. Detective Jamison had calculated that it would have taken a total of nine minutes to drive the body from the cemetery to the construction firm’s office.
The term ‘head office’ was used lightly. There was little on this lot besides a small cabin surrounded by a range of power tools and vehicles. The yard was protected by a metal mesh. It was a far cry from the high-rise corporate offices in Chicago.
Springfield Structures was of great interest to Vanessa after receiving the results of Lae Chang’s background checks from Interpol. The student herself had passed the US clearance with no concerns, but had to have further checks from her life back in China before she made the move to America. Lae’s background back in her motherland appeared to be clean; she was only twenty-five, after all. But it was her much older husband who had caused a red flag to be marked on her file.
Dingbang Chang was twice the age of his younger wife. Since arriving in the USA, he had opened Springfield Structures and changed his name to Gordon to make it easier for the locals to learn it. Dingbang is a traditional Chinese name, meaning protect the country, but he found his clients responded much more positively when they were introduced to someone with an Anglo-Saxon title.
The businessman had been closely watched since his arrival in America. His business had been under scrutiny for importing illegal foreign workers as cheap labour, ultimately reducing their overheads. However it wasn’t just the IRS who were suspicious of his business. Interpol had kept a particular eye on this legal alien as Dingbang, back in China, had been caught up in the Nanjing anti-African protests.
The protests began on Christmas Eve 1988 in Dingbang’s place of study in Nanjing. He had travelled to the southern capital from Beijing to attend university. It was during his time there that he began to join societies which were against foreign nationals studying in China.
Animosity towards foreign nationals, particularly towards African students, had begun in the early sixties. Universities began to allow students from China-friendly African nations to come and study as part of an ideal to create third-world solidarity. The hostility began when African students began receiving larger grants than their Chinese classmates. Towards the end of the 1980s African men were beginning to have relationships with the local women, causing a stir amongst the Chinese men who had already found a shortage of mates in their towns due to the unequal gender ratio in the country.
Whilst some African students ran home away from the tension, many stayed in Nanjing due to the lucrative scholarships on offer from the university to foreign nationals. Dingbang immediately took a dislike to the Africans after his own scholarship application was denied. China’s only-child policy had been implemented just a decade before, but now the country was welcoming foreign nationals into a country which could barely sustain its own people. The decision had left a bad taste in his mouth.
His distaste for the Africans was not restricted by money alone. During his first months at the institution, he’d fallen in love with a beautiful girl named Bao Yu. Her trim figure, long flowing hair and stunning brown eyes made his heart race. Her petite frame made him protective of this gorgeous creature. The pair studied together and spent their evenings down at the Quinhai River watching fireworks set off by their fellow scholars.
Dingbang was a gentleman and was courteous and patient with Bao Yu. However, his African competitor was not as restrained. Dingbang lost the love of his life to a more confident fellow called Adeola, whose forward nature wooed Bao Yu, and she stopped meeting her former companion down at the river or in the library where they’d previously studied together.
A furious Dingbang joined fellow comrades in starting a forum to begin making his views known to the university. They met on a weekly basis, handed out leaflets and held debates on the impacts of having African students study at their university.
It was Christmas Eve when Dingbang heard a disruption in the entrance to the Hohai Campus student accommodation. The student walked over to the entrance hall and found two Africans attempting to enter the building with local ladies on their arms. The campus security guard, assuming the girls were hookers, refused them entry, leading to an altercation.
Dingbang intercepted and within minutes a simple dispute had led to a full blown brawl between African and Asian students. When it was finally broken up, thirteen people were injured. After the battle, Dingbang spread lies around the Chinese quarters about the Africans. The rumours led to several dormitories inhabited by Africans being set alight with the residents locked inside, but by pure luck they survived.
The police dispersed the protesting students, leading to some arrests, including Dingbang. The Africans ran to the safety of their embassy but were prevented from entering by local police. In retaliation, they formed a stand against the law enforcers, but with only a hundred and forty in tow, they failed to overwhelm their Chinese enemies. Upon his release, Dingbang from jail joined the 3,000 demonstrators in the protest against the immigrants.
In the end, civil liberties and morality could not stand up against the masses. The Africans were the ones who were punished. African protests were deemed illegal and those who engaged in demonstrations were swiftly deported. Those who remained in China were subjected to tight enforcements around the college, including
