Who is Li Fangwei, the Chinese phantom?

In recent years, Philipp Grüll has spent almost all his time reporting on arms deals. He’s considered something of a specialist, so when his colleague Frederik Obermaier approached him with questions about a major global arms dealer, Philipp was surprised to find he’d never heard of him. His name was Li Fangwei, and he was considered so dangerous that the FBI had put a $5m bounty on his head. Intrigued, Philipp and Frederik enlisted the help of two other German journalists – Bastian Obermayer and Christoph Giesen – to unravel the story of Li Fangwei. This week on Whale Hunting, host Tom Wright speaks with Philipp and Christoph about the group’s search for the elusive arms dealer – the topic of their new book, The Chinese Phantom: the hunt for the world’s most dangerous arms dealer. Together, they discuss the knotty web of diplomatic negotiations, state complicity, and murky dual-use technology that their investigation uncovered – as well as the ongoing mystery surrounding Li Fangwei’s whereabouts. 

The Chinese Phantom: the hunt for the world’s most dangerous arms dealer is out now in German, and available for pre-order in English at all good online bookshops.

For more from Whale Hunting, make sure to follow the podcast – and you can subscribe to our newsletter at whalehunting.projectbrazen.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/