Chen Guiqiu waited in a Bangkok jail. More than a dozen Chinese security agents waited outside the entrance. She feared she and her two daughters would be sent back to China.
But most of all she feared for her husband.
Chen’s husband, Xie Yang, was a human rights lawyer. He was imprisoned in China, charged with stirring rebellion: He helped people mistreated by the Chinese government. The agents outside the Thai jail wanted to use her against him.
A Severe Crackdown
Chen and Xie’s ordeal began in July 2015. The Chinese government launched a crackdown on human rights lawyers. Chen’s husband was among dozens charged with crimes against the state.
In January 2016, Chen helped publish her husband’s account of being beaten, deprived of sleep, and otherwise tortured. China said Chen’s reports were false.
Police summoned Chen for hours-long meetings. They threatened to evict her, deny her children schooling, and have her fired from her job as a university professor.
A Daring Escape
Chen contacted Bob Fu, a Chinese-American activist. Fu is a pastor and the founder of China Aid, an organization helping Christians in China by “spiritually and legally equipping [Chinese people] to defend their faith and freedom.”
One morning in February, Chen told her daughters, “We’re going on a trip.”
The three headed south. They crossed into at least two countries without paperwork. Some nights, they had nowhere to sleep. Some days, they ate nothing but chocolate.
Finally, they arrived at a safe house in Thailand. But Chinese authorities learned that Chen might be there. Chinese agents forced her relatives and friends to fly with them to Bangkok to help locate her.
A Discovery, a Prayer, a Standoff
On March 2, Thai police stormed Chen’s safe house. They detained Chen and her daughters. The next morning, a judge ordered them to be deported.
Chen, a Christian, prayed in the Bangkok jail: “Don’t desert us now, not like this.”
Fu alerted the U.S. State Department and his associates in Thailand.
U.S. officials found Chen and her daughters the next day. They convinced Thai officials to let them whisk the family out the back of the jail. The waiting Chinese agents soon realized what had happened. The hunt was back on.
During an hours-long standoff at the airport, the conflict among Chinese, American, and Thai officials nearly turned violent.
A Future
Chen and Fu don’t say what happened next. They cite “diplomatic sensitivities” (code for politics). Whatever happened in Bangkok, Chen and her girls arrived in the United States in March.
Safe in Texas, Chen thanks the State Department and the Trump administration. But she still suffers.
In May, Xie went to trial. His lawyers called no witnesses. Xie pled guilty and asked the court for leniency. Xie’s former lawyer was detained. Chen says Chinese officials have questioned her relatives and taken their passports.
Chen maintains her husband’s innocence. She believes the trial was fake.
Fu calls the trial “nothing but an orchestrated, disgusting, political persecution show.”
For now, Chen and her daughters try to build a life for themselves. They continue to pray for Xie’s release.
And Chen is grateful. She says, “If I’ve escaped the country, they can’t control the situation anymore.”
