Interview with former FBI investigator Robert King Wittman

Do you think being partly Asian helped your undercover career?

Do you think I have an oriental face? Yes, maybe my looks helped in work.

I don't think I look like an FBI agent. I don't think most FBI agents do. Most FBI agents are just regular people.

I tell you if I put a suit on I could look much like the FBI agents in movies.

How do you view the numerous movies on art theft and special agents? Are they realistic?

Not so much, (they are) very fictionalized. In the movies, actors have many second chances if they make mistakes, but undercover agents only have one.

How do you view the dangers in your work?

There were many situations where I had guns or knives pointed at me, and I had to talk them down.

If you're a policeman or firefighter, facing danger is one part of the job, no matter in the US or in China. You're willing to accept what comes along. So you don't think much about the danger. You think about limiting the amount of danger that's going to occur.

Do you make mistakes?

Sure. But the mistakes I made were the kind that only I knew about them.

At one time, I took one criminal to lunch, they brought me the check and I automatically signed my real name. I caught myself in the end. So I just scribbled over it and made it like a signature, which was a lucky escape.

You say the Western world moves too fast, and in your job you like to be patient. But some people (especially on Western media) think China grows too fast, too.

It's their opinion. There's no gauge, especially in terms of development. Things just are going the natural speed it should be. It just follows its own economic rules. If some criticize, it's their opinion. Everybody has opinions.

As a former agent, how do you see the recent Snowden case?

I don't really have any opinion because he did what he wanted to do. I don't know anything about him. All I know comes from here (points at the front page of China Daily).

President Obama says we have 36,000 FBI agents. I don't know. I just learned that from your newspaper.