Chinese writer Yu Jie flees to US, speaks about harassment and torture (VIDEO)

Prominent Chinese dissident writer Yu Jie, has accused Chinese security officials of torturing and harassing him in 2010 shortly after his arrival in the United States, the BBC reported.

Yu accused officials of stripping him, beating him unconscious and threatening to post naked photos of him online during 2010, when he was writing a biography of his friend Liu Xiabo, the jailed Nobel peace prize winner, the Guardian reported. Yu is best known for his book "Wen Jiabao: China’s Greatest Actor," as well as being an outspoken critic of the government.

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Yu, 38, spoke at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, and also released a statement, describing the harsh treatment he endured. He said he was taken from his home on Dec. 9, 2010, a day before the Nobel ceremony, and forced into a car with a black hood over his head, the Los Angeles Times reported. He said he was then taken to an undisclosed location, stripped naked and forced to the floor as he was kicked and slapped. He said security officials also threatened to break his fingers and burn his face with cigarettes, the LA Times reported.

"Right now, foreigners are awarding Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize, humiliating our party and government. We’ll pound you to death to avenge this," Yu said the head security officer told him, the LA Times reported. "There are no more than 200 intellectuals in the country who oppose the Communist Party and are influential. If the central authorities think that their rule is facing a crisis, they can capture them all in one night and bury them alive."

Yu was released three days later and had to be hospitalized since his injuries were so serious. He had to promise officials he wouldn’t contact any foreign reporters.

He said that from the day on, after Liu was given the Nobel Peace Prize, his life was constantly harassed by the government, with "illegal house arrests, torture, surveillance and tracking, and being taken on 'trips' became part of my daily life,” the BBC reported. Liu is currently sitting in prison, serving an 11-year term for “inciting subversion” in China.

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Yu said his family suffered through this time as well, being placed under house arrest and having their phone and internet connections cut, leaving them “in an endless black hole,” the Guardian reported.

Yu, a critic of the Communist Party and a best-selling author, has been producing literary works since he was 13. An active member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, he was vice president from 2005 to 2007, MSNBC reported. He met with President George W. Bush in 2006 and was acknowledged for his work on behalf of the underground Christian and Catholic communities in China. Yu is also a devout Christian.