Smuggler's Blues

To get an audience with China's most wanted man, you drive past Mr. Kim's Kimchee Emporium, Chan's No. 1 Chinese Language Tax Accountancy and the One-Stop XXX Adult Shop. Eventually, you pull up at the Crystal Palace—a deceptively named apartment complex in Burnaby, a dismal strip-mall suburb of Vancouver full of Asian immigrants. The elevator takes you to the 17th floor. You disembark and a cheap plywood door opens. There stands a man with slumped shoulders, his once merry cheeks deflated. Behind him, dishes are stacked high in a crowded kitchenette, the greasy smells of a Chinese breakfast congealing in the...