ChinaAid
October 20, 2010
BEIJING — On October 19, 2010 Wang Shuangyan sat down at home to compose an article detailing the events that she and other Christians experienced while attempting to travel to South Africa for the Lausanne Congress. She has graciously and courageously shared her story with the world, and by doing so, invites you to stand with the persecuted in China.
Read Shuangyan’s story below:
By now, I should be in Cape Town, South Africa attending the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Instead, I am at home in Beijing, writing about what I have experienced over the past few days. I feel that this is somewhat a luxury, considering my freedom was taken from me for two days.
On September 29 and October 12, 2010, government agents invited me to have a talk with them. They basically told me that the government thinks our participation in this congress would endanger the security of the state, and then they advised me to decline the invitation. I told them since the government has failed to provide any evidence or documentation that indicated our attendance would endanger the security of the state, I would still attempt to leave, and if customs officials stopped me, I would have to stay in China.
I was originally scheduled to leave for the congress on October 15. When we gathered that the delegates in Beijing were under surveillance, we decided to meet up on October 13 — the date when the first delegate from Beijing was to begin his trip.
Therefore, I left home at 9 o’clock in the morning on October 13, and planned to meet other delegates at Terminal 3 in Beijing Capital Airport.
As I exited the front door, I saw two people sitting outside. Despite their efforts to stop me, I escaped them and got on the elevator. As I left the building, more people tried to stop me as they gave each other instructions on how to stop me. Without talking to them, I fought my way forward. When I was depleted of energy in the tussle, I began to shout for help, and then made my way to the subway station.
Once I arrived at the subway station, several security guards approached me and again I shouted for help. I took the opportunity to get to the boarding place. Probably because they knew it was their last chance to stop me, they began to use brutal force. The three young men stood in my way so I could not enter the subway train. Simultaneously, my parents arrived to help me with my luggage (as we had discussed earlier) and I told them what just happened.
After the tension subsided, my parents and I boarded a subway train. Immediately after we got on someone yelled, “Pull her out!” The three young men got into the subway train and tried to forcibly remove me from the car. I resisted with all my energy and refused to be taken off. During the scuffle, I suffered many injuries to my arms and waist. My parents could not endure seeing them attack me and and my father yelled to them, “Let go of her!” while my mother begged them, “Please don’t drag her. She has heart problems.” Because my parents intervened, I was not dragged out of the train.
The door of the train finally closed. I thought they would continue in their attempts to stop me from going. Thankfully, they only followed me until the train arrived at the airport’s fast rail station before turning back. Because my parents still worried about my safety, they went with until I arrived at Terminal 3 at the airport, and they did not leave until I met up with the other invitees who were still in China.
Before any of these things happened, I considered the possibility of being stopped at the door of my house and made up in my mind that I would not resist. Little did I know that when the time came and people tried to prevent me leaving, I would be resisting with all my strength. I cannot imagine any other young women would choose not to resist when forcibly pulled and dragged by several men — this is a spontaneous reaction out of one’s instinct.
I felt extremely miserable because my parents saw their child being harmed by other people and I wondered how many parents could endure such a thing.
From the night of October 13 through the early morning of October 16, over 20 of us repeatedly went through the process of seeing someone off at the airport and picking them up soon after. During these four days, we started out in six groups and all of us were stopped by customs. The customs officials stopped us because we would “endanger the security of the state.” Not one of us exited the country.
After that, we the Beijing delegates along with delegates from other places of China who tried to depart from the airport in Beijing, stayed in a hotel in a nearby suburb. We planned to study the Bible passages from Ephesians and some special topics as arranged by the Lausanne Congress over a few days.
On the morning of October 17 as we gathered to study the Bible, agents from the Domestic Security Protection Squad and the Bureau of Religion came in and announced that we were engaging in “an illegal gathering at a venue for non-religious activities.” They removed the four pastors in charge of our meeting and spoke with them. While they were speaking, the rest of us prayed and sang hymns together.
After the four pastors came back, we had some difficult discussions. We unanimously agreed to leave on our own volition. The officers, however, did not give us the option of returning home in taxis. Instead, government agents arrived from our respective districts to take us home, and I was forced to get into the vehicle from my district.
The atmosphere in the vehicle was relatively friendly. One of the officers in charge took the initiative and began to speak about the incident on October 13. He said the security guards did what they did without authorization and asked for our understanding. Although I knew he was one of the officers at the scene that day, but I didn’t want to go into details with him. I just told him that he did not have to mention this incident because I knew that their job was hard on them, too. I really did not want to mention the incident on October 13 and I would not have written on it had he not said anything concerning it.
After a while, I noticed that the vehicle was not headed in the right direction to take us home. The road became more and more narrow, and I soon knew they were not driving me home as they promised; they were taking us somewhere else. That evening, we arrived at a guest house located in the mountains. Two other Lausanne invitees from my district who arrived in separate vehicle. Upon arrival, our cell phones and computers were confiscated, and we were told not to leave the compound. Several people followed us everywhere and did not allow us to see or talk to each other. In each guest room, someone was their to spy on us.
On the morning of October 18, I protested that they were acting beyond their authority because they restricted our freedom without reason. I locked myself in the guest room and did not let them in. I did not eat, leave the room, or speak with anybody until they released me on the morning of the 19th. I arrived home at noon. I thought they would release me after the Lausanne Congress ended, but surprisingly, I am already in my own home.
The events from the past week have had a quite an impact on my soul. Except for failing to exit the country successfully, things happened just as I expected. What astonished me was my response to the events. Many responses are not preplanned, but are forced spontaneous responses. I noticed I responded spontaneously with my actions, including the writing of this article. I am currently struggling, and feel totally awestruck. What if this incident has not yet ended? What if things like this happen to me again? How should I respond?
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