bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

A DISSIDENT writer who has accused communist Chinese cadres of committing massacres and cannibalism has arrived in the United States from Hongkong, after three years on the run.

  Tiananmen Square organiser and well-known novelist Zheng Yi, 45, had evaded the Chinese police dragnet in a 108,000-kilometre journey, crisscrossing 12 provinces before escaping with his wife to Hongkong last March.

  Ms Bei Ming, a writer and literary researcher who was detained for 10 months immediately after the June 4, 1989, crackdown, joined Zheng's life on the run soon after her release.

  To flee the ubiquitous agents ''we relied on the protection of ordinary people who believe in the future of China'', said Zheng in Hongkong just before the couple's departure.

  While spending time in 27 hideouts, Zheng completed two books, both of which contained heart-rending accounts of cannibalism committed in Guangxi province in the mid-1960s at the behest of party cadres.

  ''I would very much have loved to stay behind with my people to fight for their freedom,'' Zheng said.

  ''However, I want to go to the free world to bear testimony to cruelties and injustices committed not only during the Cultural Revolution and the June 4 massacre, but even now.''   It is understood that the couple has been granted asylum by the US after having been turned down by another Western government.

  The two left Kai Tak Airport at noon yesterday and are due to land in New York City early today.

 ''In China, we were sheltered by people including intellectuals, workers, soldiers, police, even ex-criminals and monks,'' Ms Bei, 36, said.

  ''We told our helpers and patrons our identity as dissidents, but not our names. As soon as we left one place we destroyed all records. We never called them up again. Nor did we ever make telephone or other contacts with our friends in Hongkong and abroad.''   The couple travelled by train, bus, taxi, tractor, rickshaw and train, never staying at an inn, because guesthouse workers in China invariably check identity cards.

  Sometimes they used forged papers, some of which were provided by their benefactors, who also gave them money.

  For a time, Zheng, who had laboured in farms and coal mines in his youth, worked as a carpenter and pretended to be a half-witted peasant.

  The couple claimed that they were only once in danger of being discovered.

  In order not to expose their friends, Zheng would not publicise the route of their great escape.

  As a veteran writer known nationally for his award-winning book Old Well, Zheng became the only person ever to have been permitted to do research on atrocities committed in Guangxi province at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

  As a result of extensive field work in the ultra-leftist province in 1986 and 1988, some of which was done together with Ms Bei, Zheng collected reams of material based on interviews with officials, confessed criminals and the families of victims.

  They also had access to official records of the massacres and cannibalism committed in vast stretches of Guangxi in 1967 and 1968.

  ''Almost miraculously, we were able to go into hiding together with the records of the holocaust,'' Zheng said.

 ''As soon as they were finished, portions of my books were photocopied, stowed away with reliable friends, and sent abroad by couriers,'' he said.

  Parts of Zheng's two books, A Part of History, and The Red Memorial were put on microfilm and smuggled out of the country by two Australian tourists.

  When, by late 1991, Zheng had finished the 500,000-word Memorial, which is a searching look at the cruelties committed by Chinese communism and its roots, the couple held a boisterous celebration.

  ''I told myself, 'I can go to prison now' because copies of the books are hidden all over China and are out of the country - and they would soon be published abroad,'' Zheng said.

  ''I wanted to remain in hiding and to bear witness. The longer I am sheltered by the Chinese people, the more the party's lack of legitimacy shows through''.

  However, the manuscripts were given to prominent exiled journalist Liu Binyan in the US, who refused to publish them overseas for fear this would bring immediate danger to the couple.

  The two had no choice but to have themselves smuggled into Hongkong.

  ''The day will come when people will believe in the messages in my books, that the Cultural Revolution and June 4 are no quirks of history,'' Zheng said.

  The writer, who helped organise demonstrations in May 1989, said it was significant that the massacres and cannibalism in Guangxi took place one year after the worst excesses of the Red Guards were over.

  ''Cannibalism occurred when order had already been restored,'' he said.

  ''It was instigated by ultra-leftist cadres as a punishment against 'class enemies'.''         The writer added that the most abominable cruelties became possible after Mao Zedong indicated in 1966 that ''the dictatorship of the proletariat is a dictatorship by the masses'', meaning the mob could take the law into their own hands.

  Zheng said the communist party of today had not disowned Mao's ways.

  ''For the time being, I shall do research and write at Princeton,'' Zheng said yesterday.

  Ms Bei, who started learning English two months ago, plans to find a job to support the two of them.

  ''Unfortunately, one of us has to sacrifice our profession and it looks like it could only be me,'' she said.



Tiananmen dissident reaches US