One of the Chinese soldiers caught fighting for Moscow in Ukraine said he was inspired to join the Russian military after being fed propaganda on TikTok, only to find himself at the frontlines of the Kremlin’s meat grinder.
Wang Guangjun, 34, told reporters during a two-hour press conference on Monday that he was a rehab therapist who had dreams of grandeur by joining the “flashy and cool” Russian soldiers invading Ukraine, Business Insider reported.
“When you are in China and have no chance of being a soldier, and you see this kind of opportunity, you feel a stirring of the heart,” Wang told reporters. “And I came from that kind of motivation.”
After losing his job last summer, Wang said he fell down a rabbit hole of pro-Russian videos on TikTok, with one video advertising a position for a rehab therapist in the military to help wounded soldiers returning from war.
Wang stressed that the position promised him only a supporting role in the military rather than that of an active combatant, with a Russian recruiter assuring him he’d earn $2,000-$3,000 a month.
Instead, Wang claimed he lost all agency once he arrived in Moscow earlier this year, with the Chinese national stripped of his bank card and phone and hauled off to a training camp for a few days.
By February, Wang was sent to border regions before being officially deployed to fight for Moscow in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, where he was captured by Kyiv’s forces on April 4.
Wang, who had no combat experience, lamented that “real war is completely different from what we have seen in movies and on TV.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Renbo, the other Chinese national, claimed he was tricked into fighting for Russia after his vacation was upended in December.
The Shanghai firefighter said he was looking to “earn a bit of money” while on holiday and took a construction job from the state, only to learn that it was located in the active warzone.
Zhang, however, chose to take the job because he believed the “friendship” with Russia that was always promoted in Chinese state media.
Instead, the Chinese national found himself deployed to Donetsk, where he spent nearly all of March in the trenches until he and Wang were ordered to the frontlines, where they were subsequently captured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the presence of the Chinese soldiers in the front lines as unacceptable, with Kyiv estimating that more than 150 Chinese citizens are fighting for the Russian military.
Beijing claims that all its nationals are warned to stay away from armed conflict and to avoid participating in any military operation outside of China.
