Reflections from Pastor John Cao is a series of poetry and writings from the recently released Chinese Christian prisoner of conscience exclusively published by ChinaAid. The piece below was written on April 25, 2024 and has been minimally edited for clarity. To read more of Pastor John Cao’s poetry, one can purchase the collection written while he was imprisoned, Living Lyrics: Poems from Prison.

I once heard an absurd story about an elderly person who was alive and well, yet was required to get a certificate from the police station proving that he was still alive. I never thought that I would encounter a similar absurd story with the Public Security Bureau playing bureaucratic games. I am a Chinese citizen, born and raised in Changsha, yet when I went to the Furong District police station in Changsha and requested an ID card in the Changsha dialect, I was asked to prove that I was from Changsha.

I was born in Changsha in 1959 and completed my primary, secondary, and university education in Changsha. I went abroad in 1986 and returned to work in China in 2016. Around 2000, the Furong District police station in Changsha secretly revoked my household registration. My passport expired in 2019. On March 8, 2024, I went to the Furong District Household Registration and ID Card Processing Office to apply for the restoration of my household registration and ID card. Director Chen at the office received me. She explained that because I didn’t have a second-generation ID card, there was no information about me in their computer system. As far as their system was concerned, I didn’t exist. They couldn’t register a person out of thin air. Just like a baby, when the parents come to register, how does the police station know that the baby is from Changsha and not a child trafficked from the countryside of Hunan province? So they need the child’s birth certificate. The birth certificate is the basis for registering a child. But I didn’t have any proof to show that I was from Changsha. I said that I had photocopies of my original household registration and first-generation ID card, which was sufficient to prove that I wasn’t a stranger who came out of nowhere. Director Chen replied that those photocopies didn’t exist in their computer system, so they couldn’t be used as valid proof. So how could I prove that I was from Changsha? Director Chen said: You need to get a certificate from the Changsha Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, and we can only restore your household registration based on that certificate.

As far as the Changsha Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is concerned, I practically don’t exist either. So how can the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office verify that I am an existence from Changsha? In other words, what proof do I need to provide to convince the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office that I am a valid existence? The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office said: First, you need to have a valid passport. As everyone knows, passports are issued by the Ministry of Public Security and specifically handled by the provincial Public Security Department. My passport has expired, so I need to go to the provincial Public Security Department to apply for a passport first.

This is the most absurd part: The provincial Public Security Department is the superior of the Changsha Furong District Police Station. First, the provincial Public Security Department needs to prove my existence, then the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office needs to recognize my existence, and finally, the Changsha Furong District Police Station will recognize my existence. But why can’t the Furong District Police Station directly accept the evidence from the provincial Public Security Department? Why do they have to take a detour through the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, and have the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office recognize the validity of the provincial Public Security Department’s proof, and then have the police station recognize the validity of the documents issued by their own superiors? Moreover, how does the provincial Public Security Department know of my existence and issue me a passport? The provincial Public Security Department relies on a certificate issued by the police station where I reside, proving that I am a resident of that area.

To recap briefly: The Changsha Furong District Police Station wants the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office to issue a certificate, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office wants the provincial Public Security Department to issue a certificate, and the provincial Public Security Department wants the Changsha Furong District Police Station to issue a certificate. This is simply the most ridiculous household registration management system in the world. The U.S. government may create difficulties for foreign immigrants, but our government, which claims to serve the people, is actually creating difficulties for its own citizens.

In 2000, the Public Security Bureau secretly revoked my household registration, so it should be the responsibility of the Public Security Bureau to restore my household registration. If there are any conditions for restoring household registration, they should be directly requested by the Public Security Bureau, not through an ambiguous organization called the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is not a legislative body and has no authority to interfere with my citizenship. Obtaining an ID card is a legal requirement and my innate right as a Chinese citizen. The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office setting up obstacles is a hooligan’s behavior. Moreover, the conditions set by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office should be handled by the Public Security Bureau itself.

In fact, this utterly stupid operation method makes many overseas Chinese who are willing to return to China to serve their motherland reluctant to do so. Today, the Chinese government is making every effort to invite overseas Chinese to return to China to invest and serve, but the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is trying its best to set up obstacles for these overseas Chinese to return to China. This Overseas Chinese Affairs Office is completely dragging down the Chinese government.

Let me give you another example from someone close to me: A couple, the husband went to the United States for career development in 2002, and in 2004, China began to implement the second-generation ID card system, and he missed the application for the second-generation ID card. In 2006, his wife also applied to go to the United States. The husband did not have a Chinese ID card, but the wife got a Chinese ID card. Later, the wife applied for U.S. citizenship, while the husband was unwilling to apply for U.S. citizenship, feeling that having a green card was enough. Now the two have returned to China, and the husband wants to apply for a Chinese ID card, but after much trouble, he still cannot meet the various requirements of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. Finally, he had to admit defeat and give up applying for a Chinese ID card. However, although the wife has obtained U.S. citizenship, she still holds a Chinese ID card. Because after 2004, Chinese people who obtained foreign residence permits or even foreign passports were no longer required to give up their Chinese ID cards. The husband said that if it was so troublesome to do a simple thing in China, he’d better stay in the United States. He originally wanted to return to China to invest and contribute what he had learned in the United States, but it was all in vain. Isn’t this Overseas Chinese Affairs Office dragging down the Chinese government? For many Chinese citizens who went to live overseas before 2004 and still want to return to China to serve the country after obtaining overseas residence permits, the Chinese government should vigorously create favorable conditions for their return at this time. What reason is there to create obstacles for them?

It has been fifty days since I was released from prison, but I still can’t get an ID card. I have already passed a message to the officials of the local judicial office that if they don’t give me an ID card, I will go to Beijing to seek justice. At that time, I will simply rent a car and ask a brother with a driver’s license who is willing to accompany me to petition.

Without an ID card, I can’t find a job. Without a job, I have no income. Without income, I’ll starve. Without an ID card, I can’t see a doctor. Although going to petition may risk being charged with the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” there are free lunches in prison, so I won’t starve to death, and I must say that the hospitals in Chinese prisons are not bad. But now I have problems just surviving and may die from minor illnesses. So even if I risk going to prison, I have to go to Beijing to petition.

I am a Chinese citizen, and I love my country, but I don’t have an ID card.