A Chinese-Australian businessman wrongly jailed on the mainland has broken his silence from his Sydney home and vowed to pursue his legal battle with authorities who imprisoned him for six years.
James Peng Jiandong, 45, who now lives in the upmarket suburb of Vaucluse with his wife and three children, aged 11 to 17, was kidnapped by Shenzhen authorities from a Macau hotel room in 1993 and jailed on fraud and corruption charges two years later.
He is seeking damages from Ding Peng, niece of Deng Xiaoping, after the Court of First Instance found she unlawfully stripped Mr Peng of his stake in Shenzhen Fountain Corp, formerly known as Shenzhen Champaign Industrial Corp, which he helped found.
He told The Australian newspaper that the memories of his frustrating period in jail were never far from the surface.
'The hardest moments were when I thought about my children, who were so young at the time, and my wife who was managing a young family by herself,' mainland-born Mr Peng said.
Last week, the Court of Appeal upheld the Court of First Instance's ruling that Mr Peng could seek retribution from Ms Ding and her associates, who robbed him of his US$800 million company and instigated the corruption charges for which he was jailed.