Today, on January 11, Guo Feixiong left with many police following him. We had another chance to witness the uncommon “strong arm” and “weak nerve” tactics of such a government.
This morning, a freelance writer in Beijing came to visit me, hoping to take some pictures of the police cars and plainclothes officers that monitor my family. I agreed.
I told this friend, “Among the six billion people on earth, China has the greatest number of spies and plainclothes police. Today, in China, you are lucky enough to face the person that is monitored by the greatest number of spies and plainclothes police in the world.” This friend was very excited and astonished to see so many cars with no license plates. In addition, for the first time, there are police cars with sirens, flashing lights and “security” plates showing up outside my home. It was funny to see that when my friend was taking pictures, the police cars were trying to avoid him like mice running from cats.
After my friend left, I went to a police car that did not have a license plate and knocked on the window. There were four policemen sitting in the car; they were so scared that no one answered me.
I continued knocking; finally one of them opened the window cautiously. I told them to relax; I said my car is broken today and asked if I could borrow their car to send Guo Feixiong to the train station, since their car is going to follow us to there anyway.
They said they could not make such a decision. One of them was not as nervous as the others and asked, “Could we talk to you?” I responded, “Why not?” “I never refuse to talk to anyone.” He asked “Aren’t you leaving with Guo Feixiong?” I said “No.” He then replied, “But we asked the ticket office, and they indicated that you bought four tickets to Hubei Province. Who will be leaving with Guo?”
I said, “I only bought one ticket, Guo is leaving by himself.” The officer said, “We thought you bought four tickets and would be going to Hubei Province to investigate about Falun Gong. We have been so busy these past days; we were hoping we could rest for a couple of days after Guo left.” I said, “I hope you can have a rest too.”
One police officer then suddenly asked me, “You always have meals with so many different people, who pays for it? Where is your source of money?” I said, “Sorry, it is your job to find that out, I am not doing your job for you.” That ended our interesting conversation.
Mr. Guo Feixiong took the train under full escort of a group of plainclothes police; he was smiling, in his confidence and resolution.
Written on January 11, 2006, in Beijing, while under the surveillance of spies.
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