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Please Allow Me to Visit My Mother
- An Appeal to Primer Wen Jiabao
23 April 2012
Your Excellency Primer Wen Jiabao,
I am not only welcome Your Excellency to visit Sweden for your learning something from its advanced social system but also for your advocating universal values of freedom, democracy and human rights in China recently. As the Primer, Your Excellency may hopefully correct the mistakes made by your government against many innocent Chinese citizens, including deprivation of my Chinese citizen’s rights to renew my Chinese passport and re-enter my motherland where my paralyzed mother of 91 years old has not seen me since May 2005.
I am not sure whether or not Your Excellency have got my letter written five years ago though it should have been delivered to your office through a number of Chinese authorities, including Chinese Embassy in Sweden as well as the National Security Police in Guizhou Province where my wife had been summoned for questioning several times when she, with our little kids, had visited her parents after I had been denied to enter China mainland in February 2007. At least, the police confirmed its delivery to your office. Nevertheless, I have got no reply from Your Excellency nor from any of your agencies. Instead, what I have got are the followings:
1) The National Security Police have occasionally disturbed and frightened more of my relatives in China;
2) I, when holding a valid Chinese passport, was rejected at Beijing Airport to have a flight transit from Hong Kong to Stockholm in January 2008 and denied to enter Hong Kong three months later, with no reason nor legal document given in either case;
3) I have been rejected without giving any reason or document by Chinese Embassy in Sweden to renew my Chinese passport since my passport was expired in February 2009.
Therefore, I have to take this opportunity to appeal to Your Excellency for your advocacy of universal values with a real sense and practice to include me, my family and relatives, as all of us are Chinese citizens, that is,
1) to get the police stop disturbing and frightening any of my family members and relatives and leave them, and
2) to urge those authorities handling my case to correct their mistakes and resume my rights to renew my passport, re-enter my motherland and visit my mother as soon as possible.
Looking forward to hearing from Your Excellency or your government soon.
Best wishes for the success of your visit to Sweden as well as your advocacy of universal values to all people.
Yu Zhang
A Reference: An Appeal to Mr. Primer Wen Jiabao
(April, 10, 2007)
Your Excellency Mr. Primer Wen Jiabao,
I am a Chinese citizen residing in Sweden and must appeal to you regarding the police denying me re-entry to my homeland at the pass control of the West Beijing Railway Station on the afternoon of February 7, 2007.
At 16:35 that day, I arrived at the West Beijing Railway Station on the Direct Express T98 from Hong Kong. A few minutes after 17:00 my passport was examined at the Station pass control, and the police officer ordered me to stay in a custody room and wait for his superior's decision. At about 19:00, Mr. YIN Min, the Deputy Chief Officer of the Frontier Inspection Station (FIS) at the West Beijing Railway Station, informed me the "superior's decision": "Mr. Zhang Yu, you are denied entry to this country due to your conduct that has endangered state security. You must buy a ticket for a flight and return to your last exit location, Hong Kong."
Then three police inspectors took me by car to the Beijing Airport. At about 21:00, they saw me off at the gate for flight CX2039 to Hong Kong. During those 4 hours, despite my repeated demands and protests, the FIS police did not show me any document that verified their authority to deal with me, deny my freedom or deport me.
They only made a few oral statements such as, "According to the superior's instruction"; "We must wait for the superior's decision"; "We inform you about the superior's decision". The police never showed me any relevant legal document, nor performed any administrative formality, nor even orally indicated any legal basis or law to support their conduct. In the whole process, the only thing that followed legal procedure was their asking me to sign a form authorizing the police to search my body and belongings. I signed it but they actually did not implement it: they touched nothing of mine except for carrying my luggage for me and for sandwiching me in the car to the airport, probably to prevent me from jumping out of the car during driving. (For such a respect to my dignity, I am very grateful to Mr. YIN Ming and his colleagues on duty.)
According to my understanding of China's laws and regulations, the FIS mishandled my deportation by basing it on so-called "superior's instructions" and "superior's decision". In many aspects this deportation was illegal:
1) The FIS detained me and deprived my freedom for 4 hours without any legal order or conducting any formal proceedings. It refused to show me any reason or legal basis for their actions. The reply to my question and protest was only a phrase: "According to the superior's instruction".
2) For four hours, the FIS detained me and deprived me of my basic rights, including the right to contact my family. It even refused to inform my wife of my situation or to show me any legal basis for detaining me incommunicado. The reply to my question and protest was just a sentence, "We must wait for the superior's decision".
3) The FIS informed me about "the superior's decision" to charge me with "endangering the state security", but refused to present any reason or basis for the charge. Nor did they indicate what of my conduct was relevant to the charge. Nor did they show any legal item that gave them the authority to deny me, a Chinese citizen with a legal passport, the right to enter my own country. The reply to my question and protest was just that "the superior has decided to give no further justification in details".
4) The FIS showed not record or documentation concerning the "the superior's decision". There was nothing written, no formality, no signature, no stamp, not even an oral statement indicating the legal basis for treating me this way. The reply to my question and protest was just a statement, "This decision is merely declared orally. If you will appeal against it, you may condemn me as the one with responsibility. My name is YIN Ming, the Deputy Chief Officer of the Frontier Inspection Station (FIS) at the West Beijing Railway Station."
5) The FIS informed me about "the superior's decision" with no identification of who this superior is. I protested that the superior of FIS is also a police organ and as such shall have no authority to judge such a criminal issue as "conduct endangering state security". Thus, this "superior's decision" was obviously a contravention of due judicial procedure and therefore illegal. To my question and protest, the reply was, "This is not a police decision."
To my knowledge of China's laws, whichever state organ or its leadership is the immediate superior of the FIS, at the highest level, the State Council and the Premier are superiors of the FIS. Even though you have the highest position and authority, you still have no authority to deprive any Chinese citizen with a legal passport from entering his/her home country.
I have been working and living abroad since the end of 1981. For more than 25 years, I have been holding a passport of the People's Republic of China, and crossing PRC's pass controls numerous times for private and business visits without any trouble, including the last time in May 2005. Neither the FIS nor any police even questioned me about my conduct in any aspect. Even this time, there were no questions, except for inquiring about my capacity to buy an airplane ticket from Beijing to Hong Kong.
In a word, "the superior's decision" implemented by the FIS is a result of a fabricated accusation and a violation of rights. Without even questioning me on anything related to the allegation, the police have recklessly deprived my civil right to re-enter my own country, a freedom that I had enjoyed as a Chinese citizen until this time. I have been deprived of my right to visit my family in China, including my 86 year-old partially semi-paralyzed mother. There is likely no chance for us to see each other anymore. This is inhuman and ruthless. How absurd that a "superior" has refused to identify the name of its own organization and made a "decision" that is not allowed to be shown in writing to the person whom it has punished! It runs counter to human nature, reason and law. It is very clear that this case has seriously perverted and violated the law even in China.
Since there is no identification of the "superior", which was said to be a non-police organ but one with the authority to direct the police, I have to appeal to you, the Premier of the State Council, who is definitely a superior of the police organ. Please urge the relevant organs to handle my case according to due legal procedure, to correct by law the "superior's decision" that denied my entry to my home country and deported me to Hong Kong, and to compensate me for both my financial loss and emotional distress.
Best wishes,
Yu Zhang
Brief Biography of Yu Zhang
Yu Zhang, or Zhang Yu in Chinese order, is a Chinese citizen with permanent residence in Sweden. He was born in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province in central China on April 27, 1952, and graduated at the Wuhan Institute of Chemical Technology in 1977 when starting to be a teaching assistant there. On the last day of 1981, he arrived in Stockholm to study at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and got Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry in 1987 when continuing as a research scientist there. Beside his scientific research, he has been engaged in promoting Chinese culture overseas while defending freedom of expression in China. In the wake of Beijing Massacre in 1989, he took part in founding of "Supporting June Fourth Movement in Sweden", a human rights association of Chinese students. In 1990, he founded Nordic Chinese, a Stockholm-based monthly newsletter, as its publisher and editing director, and later also as its chief editor until ceasing publication in 1997. In 1999, he joined Tong Xun (later renamed to the Nordic Chinese Communication), an Oslo-based monthly Chinese magazine, as its editor, and became its chief editor in 2002-2007. In 2002, he joined the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), a branch of International PEN. He was the coordinator of its Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) in 2004-2011, ICPC Secretary-general in 2005 -2008, and Executive Secretary in 2009-2012. He is now ICPC coordinator of Press and Translation Committee and the Executive Editor of its translation quarterly, PEN for Freedom.
Yu Zhang, Dr.
Södra Jordbrovägen 19 NB
SE-137 65, Jordbro
Sweden
Tel: +46-8-50022792
Tel/fax: +46-8-50224191
Email: yuzhang08@live.se, wipc@comhem.se
Websites: http://www.chinesepen.org and http://www.liuxiaobo.eu
