Life on the Outside

Yesterday I mentioned the democracy activist Zha Jianguo, who served nine years in prison for “subverting the state,” charges comparable to those lodged against Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. While Zha was in prison, his sister, the author Jianying Zha, wrote a piece for The New Yorker about her brother’s experience. She explored the undeniable fact that most Chinese people had never heard of her brother and his political activities, even as he continued to believe that his work was worth the punishment. A little over a year after her essay appeared, on June 28, 2008, Zha was released from prison, having completed his term. Today, Jianying Zha sent us this update on his life since leaving prison. (An expanded version appears in her upcoming book, “Tide Players.”)

A small group of relatives gathered in his apartment to welcome him home. My daughter brought him flowers. Jianguo choked up when we embraced. It was the first time I saw his tears.

In the ensuing three months, during the Beijing summer Olympics, a team of policemen followed him daily, and a police car was parked in front of his residence at night. The policemen were friendly and polite: they accompanied him on shopping trips, carried heavy bags for him, even bargained for him at stores and helped him install an air-conditioner at home. Since they followed him anyway, at my suggestion, Jianguo would sometimes ride the police vehicle when he went out. I did it with him a few times as we went to meet friends at restaurants. In the restaurant, the policemen, usually two on a shift, would take a table at the other side of the room, and eat their meal while keeping an eye on us.

“They called me dage (big brother),” Jianguo told me, “but of course they are just doing their job, and they would ransack my place or arrest me anytime if an order is issued.”

Then, one day after the Olympics ended, the police car and the agents vanished. Since then Jianguo moved around freely, except on days deemed “sensitive,” such as during a special anniversary or a party congress. On those days, the policemen would “resume their post,” watching and restricting Jianguo’s movements. Once in 2009, for reasons not completely clear, they took him to the police station for a twelve hour “inquiry,” and confiscated his computer and mobile phone. But when I asked him what happened at the police station, Jianguo laughed: “Oh, I just gave them a big long talk about my views on politics and democracy, while they kept filling my tea cup, and also let me take a few breaks.” It sounded almost like he enjoyed having the police officers as his captive audience!

Lengthy prison life has seriously weakened Jianguo’s health. Despite medical treatments and therapy following his release, he suffers numerous ailments and tires easily. Nevertheless, his passion for political reform and concern with China’s social issues remain undiminished. These days he spends a good part of his energy tracking events on the Internet, posting essays, and communicating with a group of friends and kindred spirits. He was among thousands of signatories for “Charter 08,” the influential pro-democracy manifesto that called on the Chinese Communist Party to enact political reforms and uphold the constitutional rights of Chinese citizens. [Ed. note: Charter 08 was co-authored by Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate. It is among the reasons he was charged with “inciting subversion of the state.”]