In December 2018, the exiled Chinese novelist Ma Jian awoke in London to find himself transformed into a corrupt, imprisoned Chinese spy master. More than 5,000 miles and eight time zones away in the northern Chinese province of Liaoning, Ma’s namesake, a former chief at China’s sprawling and secretive Ministry of State Security, had received a life sentence for insider trading and accepting “extremely large” bribes. This Ma Jian had become the latest casualty in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption drive, which, the government says, has punished more than a million officials since 2012. Covering the news, several international websites erroneously illustrated the story of the official’s arrest with a stock photo of Ma Jian the novelist. Similarities between the pair do not extend beyond their shared name and age. But the tale of the two Ma Jians did not end there: six years ago it was Ma Jian the spymaster who decided that Ma Jian the novelist would not be allowed to return to China, forcing him into exile. “This is a strange China dream,” wrote Ma on social media. “Am I a banned novelist dreaming that I’m a corrupt spy chief, or am I a corrupt spy chief dreaming that I’m a banned novelist?”

When I met with Ma Jian in a restaurant close to his north London home, I asked him about the incident of mistaken identity. Had the Chinese state unwittingly played a part in giving his latest novel, China Dream, a publicity boost? The novel’s protagonist is a high-ranking, corrupt official who receives bars of gold as bribes hidden inside mooncakes. The threat of arrest and detention in “South Lake Retirement Home” hangs over his actions like an ominous cloud. The real-life story of the other Ma Jian’s arrest underlines the uncanny precision with which China Dream captures the zeitgeist. Actually, says Ma Jian, there are quite a few famous Ma Jians in China, including a basketball player and a painter. And while the identity swap may have caused confusion (especially for his children) on China’s tightly controlled internet, there is absolutely no mention of Ma Jian the novelist, or of his short satirical novel. He knows this because he has looked: “They can succeed in not allowing any information to get through.”

• Tags: China, Issue 15, Ma Jian