KEY POINTS:
Nai Yin Xue has "a man with a mask" mentality perfect for disappearing into the 400,000-strong Chinese community in Los Angeles, says the man who introduced him to the city seven years ago.
But Sun Anguang believes Xue will be unable to keep his unbridled ego and fantasist tendencies in check to stay hidden for long.
Mr Anguang, owner of the tai chi academy in Los Angeles, shook with anger as he described the shame Xue had brought on the martial arts and the Chinese community.
Xue is being hunted over the death of his wife, An An Liu, in Auckland and alleged abduction of his 3-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue, dumped at a Melbourne train station.
Mr Anguang wants his community to flush out Xue, last seen heading for the Chinatown district from Los Angeles Airport on Saturday.
"There is an old Chinese proverb that when someone is forced down into the well you are not supposed to throw rocks down on to them. Well, that is not the case in this instance - if he is still here the community must give him up," he told the Weekend Herald at his academy yesterday.
Mr Anguang said Xue had alienated the Los Angeles martial arts community during his six-month visit in 2000 with his "bragging, boasting, cheating and dirty lies".
He had pretended to be a tai chi master when he was clearly not up to it and even criticised community figures.
It was something Mr Anguang had always felt responsible for as he had introduced Xue to the community after being contacted through the phone book.
Mr Anguang said there was "not one single person" who knew Xue from that time who would help him, such was the hatred he spawned.
The alleged killing was a further insult to the community.
"As a tai chi master, you are meant to be balanced. You use the weapon as an image, your objective is to stop using the weapon.
"This man is a disgrace to tai chi."
Mr Anguang said he now expected Xue to be carrying a short knife, and said he would be dangerous if cornered as his tai chi skills were superior to an ordinary man's fighting ability.
Mr Anguang said this violent streak came from Xue's known cowardice in tai chi circles. Even though it is a non-violent martial art, a key aspect of it is real-time sparring, something Xue noticeably always refused to do.
"He refused to do some slight pushing with a skilled senior student of his. So the student - who was in his 60s or 70s - pushed him anyway to test him. It is that way we know he is a fake.
"Yes, he is a good performer. But he is a performer only - he is not a fighter."
A Chinese immigrant, Mr Anguang has been practising martial arts for 24 years and teaching tai chi for 16. He has a permanent visa granted by the US Government for his "extraordinary ability" to teach it.
Mr Anguang refused to discuss a hypothetical sparring session or fight between him and Xue put forward by the Weekend Herald, saying: "Don't compare me with him, I will not compare myself to that man Nai Yin Xue."
Mr Anguang said Xue had never discussed that he was divorced from his first wife and had an adult daughter - Grace Xue, believed to have run away from him during the 2000 trip - although he understood it had been mentioned to others.
Mr Anguang found it interesting that Xue had been able to attract a young and attractive wife like An An, as he recalled a female student who dated him saying it was "horrible ... he had terrible table manners".
He remembered Xue as a "lonely" man during his last stay in Los Angeles. But he revealed Xue claimed to have a girlfriend in San Francisco, bragging that he would go and sleep with her while her husband was away on business in China.
Mr Anguang said he never thought Xue to be capable of murder, although his time in Los Angeles showed he was "mentally unstable".
He knew that from one of the first times he took Xue to a church group, where Xue turned a one-minute introduction into a 15-minute diatribe about how good he was at tai chi.
He recalled Xue making disparaging remarks to a man called Dan Lee at a dinner, calling him old and tired - when Mr Lee commanded respect as a prominent Californian martial arts figure and had a successful career as a scientist.
Xue made his money during that stay as a tai chi instructor, although many students still felt ripped off.
Mr Anguang said Xue's time there was ended when the tai chi community got together and wrote an article unpicking his lies that was circulated worldwide, including to the tai chi masters in China. Xue then hurried off, saying he had a round-the-world ticket to promote tai chi.
"That stopped him here, but the sad thing is, he seems to always start again somewhere."
