CHINA: THE WAR ON MY FATHER.

AuthorXU, JIN
PositionA daughter tells the story of her father who was arrested in China and sentenced to prison for publishing a newsletter supporting democracy - Other news on China is also included - Brief Article

XU JIN (SHOO JEEN) WAS 8 WHEN HER FATHER, XU WENLI (SHOO WEN-LEE), WAS SENT TO A CHINESE PRISON FOR 12 YEARS FOR PUBLISHING A PRO-DEMOCRACY NEWSLETTER. LAST YEAR, HE WAS SENT BACK. XU JIN, NOW 26 AND LIVING IN BOSTON, TELLS HER STORY TO TIMES REPORTER VIVIAN TOY.

The polica came and took my father away in 1980, when I was 8 years old. It was about midnight when they knocked on the door. I asked my dad what was happening, and he told me not to worry and to go back to sleep. But there were a lot of police and I could hear them searching the house. The next day, I had a school trip to the Summer Palace. And I just remember staring and feeling numb because I knew I wouldn't see my dad for a long time.

The prison was only a 10-minute bike ride from our house, and it was even closer to my elementary school, a block or two away. He could hear our singing in school, because when I visited he would ask me: Was your class singing this song or that song?

I was about 6 years old when my father started publishing his newsletter. There were always a lot of people coming in and out, meeting at the house to talk about stories.

SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS

After they took my father away, they didn't tell us where he was for almost a year, and then a lawyer finally called my mom to tell her that my dad had been sentenced to 12 years in prison. They let us see him for 40 minutes once every two months, and they even allowed me to sit on his lap, because at the time I was still young. But there were always guards there watching us.

That first time I saw him, he was dressed in prison clothes, which were all black, and since it was winter they were very thick, and I remember thinking he looked so little. But he hadn't changed much; he was still Dad. Every time my mom and I went to visit, we would talk about my school and things in the family.

In 1986, he wrote a book called My Self-Defense about his life from his childhood to his trial. It was published in the United States. After that, they punished him, and we couldn't see him for three years. He was only allowed to write two pages to us every month.

"HE HAD CHANGED COMPLETELY"

I didn't see him again until 1989, when I was 16. I couldn't keep myself from crying. He had changed completely. His hair was gray, a lot of his teeth had fallen out and his hand was shaking, but he didn't cry. He was just so excited to see us.

I think the cruelest, most inhuman thing they did to him was to keep him in a cell alone most of the...

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