“According to the law, every Chinese citizen is entitled to a passport and is free to travel overseas as they wish. The reality, however, is that certain individuals hidden behind the invisible screen of the Chinese security apparatus decide if this law applies or not.”
The first chapter of the Chen Guangcheng saga has come to an end, a diplomatic triumph for both China and the US.
The tacit co-operation between the diplomats of the two nations is remarkable. A visiting scholar invitation from US and a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement conclude the case, a face-saving solution to an escalating crisis.
The Foreign Ministry statement reads: “As a Chinese citizen, he can go through the normal channels to the relevant departments and complete the formalities in accordance with the law, like other Chinese citizens.”
According to the law, every Chinese citizen is entitled to a passport and is free to travel overseas as they wish. The reality, however, is that certain individuals hidden behind the invisible screen of the Chinese security apparatus decide if this law applies or not. “The normal channels” are often unavailable to the dissidents, activists and their families and relatives.
Yuan Weijing, wife of Chen Guangcheng, was stopped at Beijing International Airport in Aug. 2007. Her passport was declared invalid by “relevant authorities”.
Zeng Jinyan, a Chinese citizen with no criminal records, wife of a dissident, Hu Jia, was on her way to a UN human rights conference in Europe in June, 2007. Her passport was confiscated at the airport by security personnel and she was sent home. Since then, Jinyan has applied for a new passport every year and every time the application got rejected. Today, she’s still caught up in the lengthy negotiation over obtaining travel documents that allow her to begin her study in a Hong Kong university.
Woeser, a Tibetan writer living in Beijing, began her passport application in 2005. By 2008, her application had not been processed. She filed a law suit against the passport issuance authority. The court refused to take up the case. Last month, she re-applied and got rejected.
The list of rejected applicants goes on. It includes rights activists, lawyers, outspoken intellectuals, their husbands and wives.
There’s nothing “normal” about the lives of Chinese dissidents and their families. What Chen Guangcheng has gone through is everything but normal. Now the normal procedure for him to get a passport would be to go back to Shandong and apply with local authorities.
As the world knows, returning home means falling back into the lion’s mouth. Now that Chen Guangcheng has embarked on a very “abnormal” path, let’s hope his passport comes through an abnormal channel too so that he and his family can begin a normal life in the US.
Bessie Du is Channel 4 News’s China Producer