"Most people reading this situation, they will think these people (the perpetrators) must be very scary people, right? But actually, they are very normal people in daily life." Li Jing (pen name) said to BBC.
The 27-year-old Li Jing is the first victim in a case of Chinese personification in Germany who is willing to share her experience. On July 8th, the BBC published an interview with her.
Her ex-boyfriend Tong Z. is one of the eight members of the Telegram group “German Old Drivers Driving School”. In this group, members share their experiences and methods of drugging and raping women, as well as uploading videos of the crimes they commit.
According to the judgment, Tong Z. committed crimes since 2019. Over the course of 5 years, he committed 13 acts of photographing people without their consent and 3 acts of sexual assault. He targeted at least 9 victims. Multiple times, he took photographs of Li Jing’s naked bodies while Li Jing was asleep. Li Jing had no knowledge of these actions until Tong Z. was arrested and contacted by the German police.
After learning about the incident, Li Jing couldn’t sleep or concentrate on her work. She underwent a year of psychotherapy to stabilize her emotions. In order to achieve emotional stability, she also had to take medication before the interview.
But she still wants to speak out. Li Jing remembered in the judgment that Tong Z. said to the group members: “80% of women do not report incidents of rape.” She wants to break this notion. “For me, what can be done at a social level is to expose these situations and make them feel ashamed of what they have done.”
"If it wasn't for the police asking me about this, I might have already almost forgotten this person." Li Jingyi said.
In February 2025, she received a call from the German police asking for her assistance in an investigation. It was only at the police station that she learned that the investigation was related to her ex-boyfriend Tong Z., who was facing charges of sexual coercion, rape, and drug trafficking. “I was truly, very surprised,” said Li Jing.
The police officer showed Li Jing the photo. She recognized that the person in the photo, who was sleeping and naked, was herself. The officer asked her to recall the situation at that time. Li Jing said unhappily, 'I really don't remember.'
She and Tong Z. became friends in 2021, and they got together through a friend’s introduction. They broke up the following year. That year, Tong Z. had to move to Berlin.
In Li Jing’s memory, Tong Z. was a clean and considerate guy. He could cook and clean, and he would also take the initiative to keep a distance from other women. “He would even act like a sweetheart in front of me, with very cute expressions on his face. I never expected him to be such a person,” said Li Jing.
Tong Z., 26 years old, comes from Chengdu, Sichuan. He went to Germany for higher education in 2015 and was arrested in December 2024. According to the judgment provided by the First Court of Berlin, he repeatedly took photos of women while they were sleeping or bathing, and he even raped a woman with mild physical and mental disabilities.
When arresting him, the Berlin police found more than 2TB of video materials at his residence, along with condoms, female underwear, syringes, and various prescription drugs.
This is completely different from the image Tong Z. held in Li Jing's memory. After leaving the police station, Li Jing kept thinking about her interactions with Tong Z. She reviewed their previous conversations and asked their mutual friends one by one: In their eyes, what kind of person was Tong Z.?
In the judgment, Tong Z. claimed that he had no close friends, and “most of his free time was spent alone.” He described himself as self-isolated, deliberately avoiding establishing close social relationships with others.
In reality, he doesn’t seem to be like that.
The 26-year-old Xiao Qing (pseudonym) arrived in Germany in 2015. She and Tong Z. were classmates in a language class. The two used to share a house with other Chinese students and met every day. She recalled that Tong Z. was quite shy, but he loved to laugh and was proactive in socializing. Also, because he was good at cooking, he had a good relationship with everyone.
But this may be just one side of Tong Z.’s story. In the “old driver” Telegram group, Tong Z. is nicknamed “God during the day, a demon at night”. He chatted privately with the group administrator, Zhang Dapeng, claiming that he had raped at least 18 women. He also said that when the unconscious victims resisted during the rape, he would feel “extremely excited” – the more resistance, the stronger his sexual desire.
Magdalena Gebhard is the representative lawyer of one of the victims in the Tong Z. case. She has previously represented several cases involving sexual violence, but she described it as “never having seen such large-scale, blatant misogyny.”
You can see those details, you can see how they discuss women. They regard women as a piece of meat or an object to be discussed, and even don't treat them as adults," Gebhardt said. The Berlin District Court also described Tong Z.'s attitude as the contempt for women's personal dignity.
At first, Li Jing thought this was just an individual crime by Tong Z., but as more people were arrested due to the incident involving Zhang Dapeng, she realized that it was a “organized gang crime”.
Some friends comforted Li Jing by saying, "Be careful next time when you look for a partner." Li Jing felt second-degree hurt. It took her a long time to process her emotions. She realized that being careful isn’t enough to avoid such situations. "It’s a matter of probability. There are people like this in the crowd, and you might encounter them."
After learning about the incident, Li Jing's emotions were constantly fluctuating. She couldn't sleep or concentrate on her work. "I couldn't help but think about this matter, couldn't help but search for information online about it. This took up a lot of my time and energy."
The psychiatrist told her that her nervous system was in a state of excitement. Li Jing forced herself to do yoga, trying to escape reality during those focused moments.
In the case of another main offender, Zhang Dapeng, the judgment mentioned the psychological state of many victims, and their trauma became a factor considered by the court when imposing heavier penalties.
Zhang Dapeng committed rape against the same victim four times. According to the judgment, after learning of the crime, the victim ‘often cried, suffering from insomnia, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and lack of energy’. She also kept worrying whether the defendant had spread images of her naked body.
Another victim has a 11-month-old baby. According to the judgment, during the time Zhang Dapeng committed sexual assault, the victim’s daughter was present and even woke up twice. However, due to the effects of the medication, the victim was unaware of the sexual assault until the police informed her.
The judgment states that the victim felt immense shame afterwards. She was unwilling to talk about her situation with friends or family, and she refused to seek professional help. She felt guilty for not being able to protect her daughter adequately. Additionally, she was worried that Zhang might have poisoned her daughter, and feared that the German child welfare agency would take her daughter away if they became aware of this.
Although this victim still goes to work as usual and takes care of her daughter, she suffers from severe sleep disorders. She says that her life will never return to the state it was before the incident occurred.
It has been over a year since the incident was exposed, and Li Jing is still receiving mental therapy. But for her, this action is “voluntary”.
I don’t want this matter to have too much of an impact on my life… It might change my views on certain things, but it shouldn’t dominate my life in a decisive manner.
Case number Tong Z will be heard in 2025, and Li Jing has been closely following the proceedings. She has researched many similar cases, and found information about the case of Gisèle Pelicot from France.
Over the years, Gisele's husband repeatedly drugged her and instigated dozens of men to rape her. In the end, Gisele chose to hold a public trial, so that everyone could see her and her offenders. Gisele once said, "I want to turn shame into something else."
Li Jing agrees with this statement. "This is something that Tong Z. needs to reflect on and face every day, not me." However, she understands that not every girl can be as brave or as willing to let go as Giselle. "For young girls, this is a significant challenge."
She remembers that in the judgment document, Tong Z. “guided” Zhang Dapeng on how to commit rape: “You must never let her wake up,” “You must never stop.” He also said, “I read online that 80% of women do not report sexual assault after being raped.”
In Li Jing's view, it is precisely because of this that criminals become more daring in their crimes. She wants to change the situation at the social level. She is willing to stand up and speak out, so that more people can pay attention to this case. "If we can reduce the proportion of people who are afraid to speak up from 80% to 50% or 40%, then they will be much more cautious."
On the other hand, she also wants to use her voice as a means of ‘closure’ for the event. ‘I want to stop being a passive role who just accepts or endures things in this matter, and instead become an active participant.’
