A person who does not regard any specific individual as his enemy is regarded as the greatest enemy by a group of people who have been besieging and harassing him for a full one hundred days with the most irrational hatred in their hearts.
Chinese people seem to be especially fond of certain numbers, such as five, ten, fifty, one hundred. From national celebrations to ordinary people’s weddings, dates marked by these numbers are frequently chosen.
The Chinese Communist regime, using illegal and unscrupulous methods, has besieged and harassed my family for one hundred days. No matter how “detached” the regime is, friends of mine who work for the media remind me that I must be worldly-wise and write something on the one hundredth day of being besieged and followed by the regime. People on the streets won’t find any difference between my family and other ordinary Chinese families. But one difference does exist. For the past one hundred days and one hundred nights, the communist police have been trying hard, with all sorts of unimaginable methods, to create an atmosphere that such a difference does exist. The “responsible” work of the police has created unimaginable difficulties for my family.
In the past one hundred days, the police have acted as though they were confronting an enemy army, instead of only one individual. Yet, if we could calmly look at what I have done, we would see that I have done nothing except speak a few truthful words. I have only disclosed a tiny bit of what I have seen and touched upon. It was only the tip of the iceberg of the barbarous killing of Chinese people’s lives, spirits, and freedom by local authorities.
Dressed in western suits and speaking about building up a harmonious society all day long, this regime’s furious, irrational, and shameless reactions toward my several open letters is beyond understanding.
In order to let me feel how powerful and omnipotent it is, this regime has spared no means during the past one hundred days. It has used as many as forty cars to besiege and follow me on “sensitive dates.” The personnel it has used to besiege and follow me has increased from a dozen to more than one hundred per day. The “normal” and unscrupulous following has rapidly developed into today’s action of trying to deprive all the means for my family’s survival.
This is manifested in two of their actions. They are on one hand preventing us from leasing my own house to earn some money to support my family. On the other hand, starting February 15, the police from the Public Security Bureau’s Chaoyang Branch, in Beijing, have been trying everything they can to deprive the conditions for my family to survive. In the past one hundred days, my family has not received a penny from any visitors. Yet the authorities wrongly believe that we are supported by them. So the police continue arresting those who visit me or whom I want to see. This kind of illegal and shameless action is totally out of control and irrational.
They even arrested my lawyer, Dr. Xu Zhiyong, abducted him to the police station, and held him there for three hours. They repeatedly asked all those who were arrested, “Have you ever provided financial support to Gao Zhisheng?” They also repeatedly threatened those they abducted and forced them to write a guarantee statement promising that they would never give my family any financial support. How could one not sign when a government of such a large nation is openly carrying out such a disgraceful campaign?
In the past hundred days, Chinese police did countless ugly things to us, but also publicly used violence against me on several occasions. I really hope they can cool down and reflect on what value they get for doing those things.
The CCP knows very well that what the police have done to me in the past hundred days is shameless, so they have kept quiet and have not launched a media campaign as one would expect. However, in the past hundred days, not only have I had to face harassment from the police, but I have also had to face criticism from many so called “sensible” people who hate to be overlooked. The thing that surprises me most is that these “sensible” people showed their extreme patience in the face of the dictator’s cruel persecution of rights advocates on a hunger strike, but they became extremely excited when facing people’s rational resistance. (I don’t want to criticize their silence.) It seems they have a rare opportunity to show the world that they really are “sensible” people.
But those “sensible” people show that they have a warped way of thinking. One such person named Liu Lu, from Qingdao City, even became excited and indignant saying, if necessary, he could get a long list of people who do not support the Relay Hunger Strike. Is this nonsense? You would indeed be a capable person if you could find a long list of persons among Chinese scholars who dare to stand up against persecution and tyranny; it is easy if you want to find those scholars who do not support opposing persecution and tyranny. You could get not just one long list of names, but many. And voices such as Liu Lu’s have not been alone.
Ms. Liu Di, from Beijing, said that the preparations for China’s non-violent rights movement have not yet arrived because the movement lacks the kind of supportive environment and media that Gandhi and Martin Luther King had in their times. This is the same logic of Mrs. Jing Zilin, who totally denied the value of overseas support for the relay rights hunger strike. Ms. Liu Di overlooked the effect of the Internet and overseas media and also overlooked the fact that there were many responses from all around the country within 48 hours after the announcement of the Relay Hunger Strike. Could this happen without the support of the media?
Independent media helped Gandhi and Martin Luther King to speed up their achievements. Does this mean that without an independent media, the Chinese people will never achieve their goal of protecting their rights against tyranny?
I clearly understand that the road before me is not the road of one pursuing power and money, one that has no danger, not the road of ingratiating oneself with the one in power to gain personal benefits that have no barriers. My road is full of traps and thorns, full of my predecessors’ blood and our ties [to each other]. In this land, where tens of millions of people are now suffering, people like me will definitely not have a comfortable life.
The past one hundred days are just the beginning of the tribulations, but during those hundred days, I have truly believed in Jesus, so I am not alone. “If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. The night is far spent; the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
Finding our way with a bright light during our tribulation, the way that leads to glory and justice granted by God, and [doing so] with forbearance, is for the land of China. Finally, I want to convey one word to the one who plans to harm my family in the next one hundred days, God has said in the Bible, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.”
Feb 27, 2006, in my office in Beijing, surrounded by spies and gangsters.