In 2018, frustrated after being passed over for a promotion, Mr. A left China on an impulse. He recalls that the decision came suddenly. He still doesn’t know where he found the courage, but he was willing to give up everything just to get out. His colleagues and friends couldn’t believe it when they heard he was leaving, and those closest to him said outright that he had lost his mind. With just three suitcases, Mr. A left Beijing with his wife and their young child, who had only just learned to talk. He never imagined that he might never return.
Life abroad brought many adjustments. Then, by chance, Mr. A was invited to a church. At first, he says, he attended a few church activities without much thought. Perhaps life was a bit dull, and he hoped the church would help him get to know his new surroundings more quickly. Later, he received a job offer from M Group back in China, with good pay and benefits, and he began to waver. But because he had promised to take part in some church activities, he decided to put off returning home for a month.
Just as Mr. A was preparing to return to China, a former colleague from his Beijing company was arrested on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Mr. A said his former colleague had been framed. Chinese authorities have often used this vaguely defined offense to detain people they want to silence. Mr. A was also investigated.
He realized then that he could not go back. Since the church had delayed his return, he felt Heaven had quietly been watching over him, and he began to truly believe in God.
Mr. A eventually made his way to Canada. Along the way, he says, he faced several decisions when he was uncertain which path to take. Looking back now, he feels an invisible hand was guiding him, and the path he is on seems to be the right one. At one point, for example, he was tempted to try his luck by entering mainland China through Hong Kong. But a Hong Kong customs officer suddenly flew into a rage at him for no apparent reason. Feeling uneasy, Mr. A abandoned the idea. When he later learned that the charges against his colleague had grown more serious, he said he was glad he hadn’t gone. He doesn’t know what would have been waiting for him if he had.
In early 2020, having come to see the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party more clearly, Mr. A decided that his younger brother should also leave and get away from a country being harmed by that evil. While his brother was arranging the paperwork to go abroad, the police in their hometown summoned him to report to the local police station for what they called “ideological education.” Just then, an outbreak of COVID-19 struck a city on China’s northeastern border, the very city where his brother was attending school. The police dropped the “education” session, and his brother was able to obtain his visa.
In November 2020, as other countries gradually lifted restrictions on Chinese students, Mr. A’s brother prepared to leave for the country where he would study. On November 13, a COVID-19 outbreak hit the city where his brother was living. The virus was detected at a local cold-storage plant, and authorities began testing and placing people in quarantine in stages. Mr. A’s family home was located right next to the plant, separated only by a wall. The plant’s workers and several thousand nearby residents were ordered to take tests and were gradually placed under quarantine and observation. But because his brother was staying at the family’s old house elsewhere, he was not required to be tested or quarantined.
On November 17, Mr. A’s brother traveled to Shanghai, where he was scheduled to depart from Pudong International Airport at 1 p.m. on November 20 to begin his studies abroad. Just days later, an outbreak linked to the airport’s cargo operations led to widespread flight cancellations and mass testing. Nearly 40 percent of flights were canceled, and more than 10,000 people at the airport were ordered to undergo testing. Most of the affected travelers had to pay steep fees to cancel their tickets, and tens of thousands were forced to change their travel plans. By then, however, Mr. A’s brother had already arrived safely at his destination and was undergoing a 14-day quarantine.
Looking back, Mr. A and his brother found the remarkable sequence of events almost impossible to comprehend. For Mr. A, however, the explanation was clear. He believes that his faith gave him strength and that divine protection repeatedly spared his family from danger. Through these experiences, he came to understand the true significance of faith in a way he never had before.
Translated by Cecilia
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