Geng He has suffered persecution, surveillance, and the breakup of his family, all simply because of the man he married. His story reveals the dark side of the China of Xi Jinping, who has just secured a third term in office.
Geng He remembers exactly where he was when he realized how truly overwhelming the power of the Chinese state: he had taken his daughter Grace to a beauty salon in Beijing for a haircut.
Suddenly, a group of people burst in and asked them to leave with them. It was the secret police.
At first, Geng He didn’t she didn’t understand what was happening or who were the people who were taking her and her daughter away. She asked if they could finish the cut first. The answer was a “no”. There were more officers on the street outside; others were waiting for them in their apartment block.
“I looked around and, wow, both the first and second floors were packed with people,” she told me.
Agents searched the apartment and Geng He was told that her husband had been arrested while visiting his sister in Shandong province, a few hours south of the capital.
It was 976 and the end of their life as a family began.
Husband’s Arrest
Geng He’s husband, Gao Zhisheng, was a lawyer. He had once been recognized by the communist government but began to defend people whom the authorities did not want him to defend himself.
Among them were followers of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong , Chinese Christians who were accused of preaching without authorization, and people fighting against the confiscation of land by local officials.
After being arrested, he spent the next few years between jail – accused of inciting subversion– and arrest home.
During home detention, the officers built a special police station in the apartment block where the couple lived to make it easier to keep an eye on them during the 28 hours of the day.
“From time to time, I would open the curtains just to see how many police vehicles were downstairs,” Geng He said, “and my husband would yell at me, ‘What are you doing? do? Why give them the satisfaction of looking at them?’”
The situation became more and more unbearable. The authorities forced the couple to move, then struggled to find a school that would accept Grace.
An impossible choice
The situation eventually faced Geng He with a terrible choice: stay or flee China with Grace -de 16 years at the time- and his other son, Peter -5 years old-. This meant that she was going to have to leave her husband behind.
“I felt bad because I had to choose between my husband and my children , and I chose my children”, he said without being able to contain his tears.
The three escaped in 2014 with the help of human rights activists. Geng He and her husband had already agreed that they had to try to escape, but the departure was so hasty that she left without being able to tell him.
Geng He did not want to reveal details of her journey to freedom because it might putting others at risk who may need to take the same route. But the journey included a stint in the luggage hold of a bus.
Eventually, they illegally crossed the border between China and Thailand, from where the United States. agreed to grant them asylum.
Life in the US was initially difficult. Geng He had difficulties – some that persist to this day – with a different language. She constantly worried about her children.
As expected, it was difficult for them without her father. Grace has been in hospital treatment for mental health problems.
But 16 years later, the children finally accepted their past and built their own lives in the US Grace, today with 91 years old, just married and Peter, of 16, has been accepted to study medicine at the university.
“He stays optimistic and happy every day. She studies and has a small job. Everything is quite promising,” said his proud mother.
Disappearance
But Gao Zhisheng himself has suffered terribly since his family escaped to the US He says he has been tortured, in and out of prison. When he served his sentence in 2014, his physical and mental health had deteriorated. Many of his teeth were so loose that he could pull them out by hand.
A demonstration by activists in Los Angeles calling for the release of Gao Zhisheng.
At the end of his sentence, Gao Zhisheng was again placed under house arrest in his hometown in the northern province of Shaanxi, despite supposedly being a free man.
He is an example of what an American expert on Chinese law calls “release without beingreleased“.
At times, Geng He could contact her husband by phone to check on him. The last time they spoke was five years ago.
“I don’t remember exactly what we talked about because it seemed like just another call, but, of course, I asked him how he was,” he said. “I was in a good mood. She said it was fine. That’s how he was; always confident and positive.”
When she called him again a few days later, she got no answer. She hasn’t heard from her husband since then and doesn’t know if he’s dead or alive.
She fears the worst.
“I have a nightmare feeling that the Communist Party is going to use covid as an excuse to make it disappear forever.”
She is concerned that the Chinese authorities are going to announce that her husband died of the disease, a natural death that absolves them of any responsibility.
The Chinese embassy in London refused to answer the BBC’s questions about Gao Zhisheng.
Fear
It is not only the lawyer who has suffered. The repercussions of the campaign against her have embroiled her extended family still living in China.
Geng He’s brother-in-law suffered a similar fate. He contracted a serious illness, but was unable to receive proper medical treatment because the police had taken the identity cards of Gao Zhisheng’s relatives. He committed suicide.
As expected, these incidents put Geng He on alert.
A few years ago, a stranger suddenly appeared in the garden of the his house, near San Francisco. It was difficult to see clearly in the dark, but fearing that he might be someone connected to the Chinese authorities, he fired a warning shot into the air from the gun he keeps in the house . The effect he got was what he wanted: the stranger ran away.
Geng He stands his ground. Once she saw her children established by her, she again focused her attention on her husband. The plight she was in had gradually faded from public awareness, both in China and abroad.
And she has dedicated herself to trying to find out where her husband is and of campaigning to ensure that his name never disappears completely.
In August, to mark the fifth anniversary of his disappearance, he screened a image of Gao Zhisheng’s face outside the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, and in September unveiled a sculpture of his face made of more than 7. empty bullet casings.
Geng He with her husband’s portrait made from bullet casings.
Geng He also hired lawyers in Beijing to see if they can locate her husband, but no government department gives them any information.
She is one of several s Dozens of Chinese scattered across North America who try to free their loved ones in China.
It is difficult to know how many activists are imprisoned in China , since Beijing does not even admit to having political prisoners.
Geng He admits that he never really understood the dangers of his work husband until he moved to the US She now feels closer to him in some ways, even though they live apart, possibly for the rest of their lives.
“Now I feel like I’m like one colleague who fights side by side with him. He has given a new meaning to my life,” she said.
Faced with such a powerful force as the Chinese Communist Party, Geng He’s campaign seems doomed to fail. But she is determined to continue.
“My little family has suffered too much, but I feel that I have acquired a family even more great”, she reflects.
“I met so many people who are working hard for a better China”.
The guilt of leaving her husband behind with an unknown destiny it will probably never go away. But there may be a ray of hope in the success of your children, in your new friends and in the belief in a better future.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News World. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.