FOR two years, he hid behind the anonymity of the Internet to chronicle his sexual escapades with the women of Shanghai and comment on Chinese politics.

His accounts drew angry reactions - one Chinese professor led an online campaign to expose him.

But now the man who the world knows as ChinaBounder has stepped out and revealed himself as David Marriot.

The book is likely to further add to Chinese ire as it rubbishes their country's attempts to tout itself as a global force.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian from an undisclosed 'third country' in South-east Asia, Mr Marriott confirmed for the first time that his alter ego was ChinaBounder.

'Modern China has displayed a history of over-reacting to any form of criticism, not just against the country or the Communist party per se,' he said.

'Chinese leaders have fashioned a response based on what they perceive the people of China to be, and a few elitists now often decide what offends people of the motherland.'

Mr Marriot's book is called Fault Lines on the Face of China: 50 Reasons Why China May Never Be Great.

Mr Marriot claimed that he graduated from Cambridge University.

Once again, the professor of psychology at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who had led the first campaign, has urged Chinese readers to boycott the book.

Said Prof Zhang Jiehai: 'ChinaBounder said he had fifty reasons to assume China will not be great.

'On the contrary, I have at least one reason to say Britain can be great... But one thing I believe in is that there is a chance for China to become great again, a far greater chance than for Britain.'

MENTAL PURGE

More than 17,000 people visited Mr Marriott's blog in the wake of Prof Zhang's campaign two years ago, but the book and its reaction have so far generated far less traffic.

The self-confessed Casanova also said he had written his sex blog as a 'mental purge and colonic for my sexual adventures' and in an attempt to secure his 'fifteen minutes of fame'.

On the furore surrounding his sex blog following the professor's first campaign, Mr Marriot said the confusion surrounding his identity gave him 'excellent cover'.

At the height of the controversy, there were threats to kill and castrate him.

Mr Marriot insisted his decision to leave China was connected to his book deal and 'differences between me the Shanghai police - a story best left to a later time'.

This story was first published in The New Paper on 18 July 2008.