wfn.org | Episcopalians: Courage, prayers sustain Episcopalian Chinese dissident's family

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

October 16, 2002

2002-238

Episcopalians: Courage, prayers sustain Episcopalian Chinese 
dissident's family

by Nan Cobbey

(Episcopal Life) Christina Fu doesn't know if she will ever see 
her husband again. He took a risky chance in April and is paying 
for it with his freedom. He may pay with his life. 

Yang Jianli, a 38-year-old father of two, member of All 
Saints Episcopal Church, Brookline, Massachusetts, returned to 
his native China in April on a "borrowed" passport. He was 
caught. He made one phone call to his wife and has not been 
heard from since. 

For 13 years, ever since the 1989 student massacre in Tiananmen 
Square from which he escaped, Yang has been barred from China. 
He's one of 49 dissidents blacklisted for outspoken criticism of 
the Chinese government and for promoting a change to democracy 
and constitutional law. No lawyer has been allowed to take 
Yang's case because he has not yet been charged. He was formally 
arrested on June 21, according to the State Department. He is 
being held in Beijing incommunicado, which, according to Amnesty 
International, is a violation of both Chinese and international 
law. 

Yang's use of a friend's passport was a last minute decision, 
says his wife, Christina Fu. He'd planned the trip for months, 
but had intended to visit Nepal and Thailand and try to enter 
China through one of those countries. Instead he used the 
passport to enter directly through Beijing. He was determined to 
get to the Northeast of China where tens of thousands of workers 
have lost jobs, where manufacturing plants are closing. Yang, a 
Ph.D. in political economics, felt his writing and research 
depended on what he could learn firsthand. 

"I didn't have a chance to discuss with him about all the steps 
what to do if he was in trouble," says Fu. "I was most afraid 
that he would suddenly disappear and I would never hear him 
again." As she tells the story, her nervous laugh turns into a 
gasp and words catch in her throat. 

"On a Friday night, at 11 o'clock, I got a phone call. It was 
a terrible moment. The man didn't tell me who he was. The only 
thing he told me was Your husband is in trouble at an airport 
in Kunming. He was stopped by the police.'"

Later that night, Yang called her from a hotel where he was 
being held. He told her about his arrest. The next morning, she 
reached him at that hotel. He said to her: "There are two police 
friends that are with me. They are very nice. I know I am not 
going to stay here for long. I will be transferred to another 
place." 

Those were the last words she heard from her husband. 

A presidential visit

Fu, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, focuses her hopes on 
Amnesty International, efforts by her church, political allies 
found through her Harvard connections and her Massachusetts 
congressmen. All believe a scheduled visit to the United States 
by Chinese President Jiang Zemin could be a help. They have 
organized press conferences, mailings and literature to 
coincide. Zemin's visit is scheduled October 25. 

Yang, who also holds a Ph.D. in mathematics, is president of the 
Boston-based think tank Foundation for China in the 21st 
Century. A member of the Communist party during his 
undergraduate days in China, he became an outspoken supporter of 
democracy after his exposure to Western thought at the 
University of California in Berkeley in the 1980s. Yang wrote 
and spoke widely about the need for reform in China and was one 
of the founders of the Foundation, which publishes and 
broadcasts its message into China and across the world. 

In 1989, when students in Beijing were facing the wrath of 
the Chinese government, Yang organized mass protests in front of 
the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. He demanded government 
dialogue. He started raising money for the students. On May 9 of 
that year, when the Chinese government declared martial law in 
Beijing, Yang decided to travel to China, to deliver the money 
he had raised. He was present with the students in Tiananmen 
Square on June 4 and has said that he saw more than 20 people 
killed that day.

"That's really where he changed his mind about the Communist 
Party," Fu told the Boston Globe. 

Since then, Yang has helped draft a democratic, federal 
constitution for a free China, organized forums for Chinese 
scholars with the Dalai Lama, created a book series which is 
distributed secretly within China and initiated "The Voice of 
China," a short-wave, clandestine radio program that has been 
broadcast into China every day for the past 10 years.

Pray for me every day'

"When my husband left, he told me, Whatever happens just 
pray for me every day and  I want our children's lives normal.' 
" Fu does pray for him every day and so do friends from All 
Saints.

Her prayer and her confidence in her husband's strong faith 
keep her centered. "I know he went to China with peace."

On Aug. 23, Amnesty International issued an "urgent action 
appeal" about Yang Jianli. The report, sent worldwide, cited 
fears for his safety. Amnesty urged its members to send appeals 
immediately to China's minister of foreign affairs, minister of 
public security and ambassador.

"Most urgent action appeals are on behalf of people who may 
be being mistreated, need medical care," says Joshua Rubenstein, 
Amnesty's northeast regional director. "In Jianli's case, we 
don't know where he is."

Rubenstein says the purpose of the letters is to make the 
authorities aware that people all around the world are watching 
and waiting to find out what will happen. "And we will 
eventually know what happens to him." In the past, China has 
denied political activists fair trials and has used torture, 
according to Rubenstein. 

Archbishop and Noble Peace Laureate Desmond M. Tutu visited 
All Saints in May and met with Fu. Afterwards he wrote the 
Chinese ambassador to plead for Yang. The Massachusetts 
congressional delegation has done the same, as have members of 
the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Chinese activists, both in the United States and in other 
countries are protesting Yang's arrest. 170 of them issued a 
joint statement calling on the government to release Yang and 
"abolish the blacklist."

At All Saints, Fu's support group continues to meet weekly. 
The church recently published booklets with background 
information and letters of support. 

In anticipation of the Chinese president's visit, supporters 
were operating "at full court press," said Julie Seavy, All 
Saints' director of religious Education and member of Fu's 
support group. The church sent more letters, gave out buttons 
with Yang's picture, conducted forums. U.S. Representative 
Barney Frank scheduled a press conference in Washington. The 
State Department requested Yang be released before the visit.

The occasion of the visit makes Yang's release more likely, 
according to Jerome A. Cohen, an expert on the Chinese legal 
system and former Harvard Law School professor. "Nobody wants to 
mar a state visit  because a case like this is getting in the 
way," Cohen told a Harvard Crimson reporter.

My hope never dies'

So many people have been supportive that it is hard for Fu to 
talk about it without tears. "A lot of people, really a lot, 
have helped. That is why my hope never dies," she says. "I tell 
people, any help is big. Right now you don't know what can 
trigger them to release him. So anything you can think, just do 
it." 

Even in this time of worry and waiting, Fu lives with a sense 
of peace about her husband. "I know he can deal with the 
interrogation with the solitary confinement. He was prepared. I 
know, through prayer, he can sustain there. And for me to have 
peace, real peace, is just to pray for him."

------

To help, write to Ambassador Yang Jiechi, Embassy of the 
People's Republic of China, 2300 Connecticut Ave. N.W., 
Washington, D.C. 20008; fax: 202-328-2582.

On the web:

http://www.chinaeweekly.com/yangengReports.asp

--Nan Cobbey is features editor of Episcopal Life.