Why is Mr. Chiu in Muji in Ha Jin's short story, "Saboteur?"

In Ha Jin's short story, "Saboteur," Chiu Muguang, who is
a university professor, is spending the last day of his honeymoon in Muji, China. He and
his new wife are at an outdoor cafe. Chiu is anxious to return home to Harbin because he
is recovering from a bout of hepatitis and does not want to experience a
relapse.

Unaccountably, a policeman sitting nearby, throws
his tea at Chiu and his wife. Chiu, understandably takes offense, and demands an
apology. However, all at once, he is arrested for disturbing the peace and thrown in
jail. Chiu starts to feel very sick with a relapse, but no one in the jail will help
him. Eventually, sounds from the courtyard grab his attention, and when Chiu looks out
the window, he sees his student, Fenjin (who the university has obviously sent to help
him), handcuffed to a tree. The police are torturing him. It soon becomes clear to Chiu
that if he does not sign a false confession to being a saboteur, they will hold him and
continue to torture his student.

There are several ironies
here: first, once Chiu signs the confession, the police release him and Fenjin. My first
thought is that with this confession, the police would hold Chiu indefinitely, but they
do not.

The second irony is the reason for the story's
title. Once Chiu is released, now very sick with hepatitis, he insists on visiting every
restaurant nearby and eating there. He is intent upon spreading his very contagious
hepatitis with hopes of infecting the area and getting back at the police for their
injustice towards him.

There is a dual irony in this: Chiu
was obviously already contagious when he became so sick in the jail so he was spreading
the disease without knowing it, which would ultimately make the policemen ill. The
second irony is that while Chiu was not a saboteur when he was arrested and charged, he
becomes one as he intentionally tries to spread the infection out
of a need for revenge.

The story begins with Chiu simply
finishing his honeymoon in Muji, hoping to get home without getting sick again, and ends
with Chiu becoming a saboteur, responsible for a wide outbreak of hepatitis in the area,
after his departure.