A Chinese Nightmare: From Patient to PLA Prisoner to Indentured LaborersteemCreated with Sketch.

in #china5 years ago (edited)

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It's over...
It's finally, over...
Except that it's not.
It's not, and it won't be for a long time.

A month doesn't sound like a long time; unless it's spent enduring a preview of Hell (such as being brought, badly injured, to a facility belonging to a hostile nation's military and left there against your will, being routinely subjected to absolutely botched medical procedures and nursing staff neglect) and then being told, at the end of it all, that you cannot leave. So for me, the 32 days stretching from 28 February to 31 March were beyond a shadow of doubt, bar none, the longest 32 days of my life. Having already described the experience of being vivisected by what passes for medical professionals in China in my previous two entries I won't recap too much here, except for the final stage (the removal of the damnable machine they had me hooked up to). Instead, this entry will focus on the one part of the entire experience that would have put me on suicide watch if the thought of my children had not been ever-present in my mind: the fight to actually get OUT of the hospital.
Before I begin, I would like to say that I have written all three of these entries (especially this one) not simply as an account of my experience but as a warning to any other expats in China who may be reading this. DO NOT, under any circumstances, allow yourself to be placed under the care of China's hospital system. Nearly every major city in China has at least one completely foreign-operated hospital (be it Japanese, American, European or South Korean). These hospitals are more expensive of course, which is why many choose to check in to Chinese hospitals instead. Should you find yourself in need of medical care, remember my story and pay the extra money.

Final Treatment

After the skin-grafting surgery that I described in my previous entry (20 March), I was told that the saline-cycling machine my leg was hooked up to would be removed the following Wednesday, and that I would be free to leave the following Friday. On Wednesday, as promised, a group of seven doctors and four nurses (I'm not sure why there were so many given that only one doctor and one nurse did any actual work) gathered around my bed to remove the machine from my leg. The sight that greeted me was something that looked less like a Human leg and more like a cherry pie pulled from the oven, with blood oozing out between strips of skin the way cherry sauce would ooze out between strips of batter. While I stared, dumbstruck, the doctors actually broke into applause (yes, applause), with badly pronounced shouts of pre-rehearsed English exclamatories, such as "perfect!" and "beautiful!"
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The most ironic part bout the entire carnival show was that the wound on my knee (which was the actual wound from my fall, the one that landed me in the hospital in the first place) was still open, bleeding, and untouched.

After an entire month in the "care" of these butchers, the only wounds to receive treatment were the ones they inflicted!

They were, however, kind enough to inform me that there is a slight chance I will never fully recover and will walk with a limp for the rest of my life, due to the knee injury.
You know, the one they've done exactly fuck-all about in the month they've had me confined here at the "Meiyou Clinic".
To be honest, I don't even remember what was said or done for the next hour or so. All I remember was staring at the leg as they wrapped it, and thinking "you've got to be kidding me." Later that evening though, was a bit of a surreal experience. An elderly Chinese lady who was staying on a fold-out cot in the room to take care of her husband (a patient who was missing part of his foot) had spent most of the past week fussing over me like a mother hen (she spent the entire day after my skin-grafting surgery slowly chanting "wo shi nide Zhongguo mama," meaning "I am your Chinese mother").
Given my experience with the Chinese (especially the elder generation) I'm forced to admit that as aggravating as this was, she was genuinely trying to be helpful, which she was under no obligation to do, and I'm grateful for at least her intentions. However, without a common language, when someone makes a habit of trying to tell you when to eat, what to eat, what not to eat, and rearranging what belongings you have with you (in spite of your objections) so that your book is now out of reach and the nurse call button (which usually does not work) is as well, especially during times when you have the curtain drawn around your bed and you would prefer to simply be left alone, it grates on the nerves.
Well, on this particular evening, the lady in question came to me with an ornate book (which I couldn't read because it was in Mandarin, and traditional Mandarin at that) and opened it to the first page. At the top was a much younger photo of the chief of the doctors who had presided over my "treatment," in full PLA dress greens (all I know about his identity is that his surname is Jiang, his name contains the character "san" meaning "3," and his WeChat ID is fisherman306). As it was later explained to me, this book was one of China's national medical manuals, and this was the "about the author" page. Screenshot_20190406-181740_WeChat.jpg
The lady was attempting to assure me "your doctor is a respected professional." Given that China has had a bad run recently of fake doctors with fake credentials (Liu, The World of Chinese), including one rather notorious incident in Chengdu where a "doctor" with forged credentials worked for several years in one hospital and owned his own clinic nearby prior to raping a drugged patient (for which he was sentenced to a whopping six years and a fine of less than $1,000 US dollars) (Wong, South China Morning Post), I suppose this reassurance did not seem out of place through Chinese eyes. As for me, all I could think was "if this guy is the one writing their manuals, then that explains a lot about the state of healthcare in this country." Well, never mind. I was going to be out of this pit two days later. Right?
Yeah, about that...

Detained By the PLA For Using an American Bank Card

Thursday came.
My employer, the Macchiavellian little weasel who brought me to this hospital and then, when I was physically and legally trapped, locked me into an employment contract for the lowest salary I have seen in my tenure in China (see my previous entry), came to me and said "excellent news! The doctors say you are finally healed!"
My skill with words is not sufficient to express my elation upon hearing this (and a day earlier than expected), even though even a cursory glance at my leg was enough to reveal it for the farcical statement that it was. "Great! So, I can leave, right?"
That was when my employer's expression changed subtly. "Well," she said crisply, "there is the little matter of the bill."
I rolled my eyes, having known this was coming. "Right," I groaned as I began fumbling through my documents for my US debit card (since my Chinese bank was virtually empty at this point). "How much is the damage?"
"We have good relations with the hospital," she said proudly, "so it is not so much." She then produced a slip of paper and handed it to me. Amid all the Chinese characters I was able to discern the figures "RMB 43,036," a figure that comes to around $6,000 USD. I'm forced to admit, this was a lot better than I had been expecting.
However, China was not through throwing problems at me yet.
I'll skip over the melodrama of the day and simply say that the end result was that I was unable to use my US bank card to pay the bill (the hospital could not accept Visa, or Mastercard, or any other cards except "UnionPay," which is not used anywhere on the planet outside of China except a handful of airports and tourist towns that receive heavy Chinese traffic). I have a Chinese bank, of course, with a UnionPay card, but given the jaw-dropping frequency of financial fraud in China (Yu, The Epoch Times), which continues to run absolutely rampant despite Xinhua's brief (and utterly unsubstantiated) claim that it is declining (Xinhua News), I never keep more than a few thousand RMB in it, opting to keep the rest of my money in an infinitely more reliable US bank. However, as I've repeatedly pointed out, China does not like to acknowledge that anything outside its borders exists, so a bank card from the U.S. might as well be from Mars here. There are a handful of ATM's in the country that will allow withdrawals using a Visa or Mastercard (the ones at the banks themselves, or in airports), but this too was a problem, as I was forbidden to leave the hospital until the bill was paid.
Now, let's analyze this: you're forbidden to go get the money to pay the bill... until you've paid the bill, even though you HAVE the money to pay the bill, but they refuse to accept the payment medium. In what country would this make sense? Right. China. And rest assured, given that this was a PLA hospital, armed troops showed up the moment I raised my voice to complain about the backwardness of the situation.
By the end of the day, my employer gave me a shame faced look and said "well, unfortunately, you cannot leave until you have paid the bill."
I asked, "where am I going to get 43,036 RMB if I'm not allowed to access an ATM?"
To which she answered, "actually, it's 43,116 now, because it is too late in the day to check-out and you have to pay for another night." At this point the two PLA infantrymen who had been following me around (apparently an American on crutches is dangerous enough to require two armed Chinese guards) took hold of my arms and forcibly escorted me back to the ward I had been assigned to, to contemplate the situation: I was currently under detention by the Chinese Army, for no criminal charge, without benefit of a lawyer or consular access, until such time as a ransom was paid, and I was supposed to pay them more each day for confining me! And when I began typing an email to the US embassy explaining this situation, the doctor (who somehow became aware of who I was contacting) ripped the laptop from my hands and threw it across the ward, smashing it against the wall, shrieking something about "lies that defame China."

For the record, I would not recommend that anyone do what I did after this point unless getting killed in a third-world country is your ambition in life, but by this point, I'd had it.

I stood up (which hurt like hell without the crutches), picked up my walking cane discreetly, locked eyes with the doctor (whose rank, by the way, was Lieutenant Colonel), repeated the situation exactly as I described it above (and in my email to the embassy), and said "alright Jackass, tell me the part that was a lie."
He fumed for a minute, wagging a finger in my face, and said "we saved your life! You should be grateful!"
I was unable to respond to that one, as I was thinking back to having my leg slashed open without anesthesia (multiple times) and laughing too hard, but when the hand that was pointing a finger in my face was pulled back as if preparing for a backhand, I raised up my walking cane and roared in no uncertain terms that getting the shit beaten out of him in his own hospital by an injured American civilian would not look good on his service record. Frankly, if he had called the guard in at that point it would have ended badly for me, but I suppose he wasn't willing to lose face by admitting he needed a guard to deal with an American who was barely able to walk. Instead, he simply stormed out of the ward, followed by the older lady who had insisted on referring to herself as my "Chinese mother."
Several days passed like this. Each day, a soldier came to my ward (they were no longer sending nurses; now they sent an armed guard in dress greens) to inform me (via translator) how much my bill had gone up, and to ask if anyone Chinese had agreed to (in these words) "sponsor my release." Each day the answer was no. Each day I was reminded "you will remain here until your bill is paid." Each day I insisted "the bill would already be paid if I was allowed to go to an ATM, or if your third world cashier system could accept a Visa card." Each day the response was "dees eez Chah-nah, not Ah-mei-lee-ka. Yoo leev een Chah-nah, yoo yoo-za Chah-niz ben-ka kod aw nah-ting!"
Finally, the school to which my agent had assigned me (where I was supposed to start work on Monday, 1 April) called the agent. I didn't hear the details of the conversation until later, when I heard them from the principal, but here is how I'm told that it happened. The school called on Sunday, 31 March and said "our teacher is coming on Monday, right?"
The agency's response was "well, no, but we'll send a substitute."
The school, hearing this, had an absolute fit (they had been so impressed with the demo class I delivered with my leg ripped open that they'd insisted "this teacher, no other," and the last-minute bait-and-switch left them ready to cancel their contract with the agency and sue the agency for breach). In a flash, the agency found it in whatever ice cavern passes for their hearts to pay the hospital bill for me, with the understanding that I have to pay them back of course.
They came to the hospital, I checked out, and then I went to the company office (where the agency has decided to convert one of the offices into a makeshift bedroom for me instead of paying me the promised housing allowance... you can't make this garbage up) to sign a repayment agreement, and here is where it got weird(er).

Just Sign on the Dotted Line, Please

Obviously, the agency expected collateral until the loan (which, considering the absolutely insulting salary of the contract they ensnared me in, is roughly 3 and a half months' pay, if I devote every penny of my salary to repayment and forego the luxuries like food and water) is repaid. And what collateral do they want me to leave at the office?
My fucking US bank card!
The same US bank card that would enable me to go to an ATM at the bank and withdraw the money to pay them back in a single day. The agency insists (and a Chinese cop is present to make it plain that I have no choice) that rather than going to an ATM and paying them back in a single afternoon, I must leave the means of accessing money in a locked box at their office, and pay them back in monthly installments from the God-forsaken miserable salary I was forced (under literal threat-to-life) to accept.
And, of course, until this loan (which, once again, I could pay back in a single day if I were permitted to use my US bank card) is repaid, there is an exit ban in my file at Customs and Immigration. Any attempt to leave the country would result in my arrest and indefinite detention (Beauregard-Champagne, The Globe and Mail).

...You know, in a previous article I warned any expats living in China (especially Americans) that it was time to get the Hell out. I myself was forming my exit strategy as I posted that. My intention was to ship everything I owned back to the States and then put China in the rearview mirror for good. But first, just one last volunteer stint in Thailand. Then I would pop back to Beijing, pack my suitcases, and leave.
After all, what could possibly go wrong?

The silver lining, if there is one, is that this June, when the 30 year anniversary of Tiananmen Square rolls around, if anything happens I'll be in Beijing to report it first-hand. And who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and write an article about it that is inflammatory enough to get me deported.

Works Cited

Beauregard-Champagne, Jerome. "Why China's Exit Ban is Worrying for Travellers." The Globe and Mail, 21 Dec, 2018. Web, 6 April, 2019.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-chinas-exit-ban-is-worrying/

Fan Yu. "China's Financial Fraud Problem." The Epoch Times. 23 Mar, 2018. Web, 3 Apr, 2019.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinas-financial-fraud-problem_2655466.html

Liu, Hatty. "Doctored Credentials." The World of Chinese. 12 July, 2017. Web, 5 Apr, 2019.
https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2017/07/doctor-ed-credentials/

Wong, Michelle. "Fake Doctor Jailed for 6 Years for Raping Female Patient in China." South China Morning Post. 28 Jan, 2019. Web, 4 Apr, 2019.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2183989/fake-doctor-jailed-6-years-raping-female-patient-china

Xinhua Staff. "China Sees Fewer Financial Fraud Cases." Xinhua News. 3 April, 2019. Web, 5 April, 2019.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/03/c_137946911.htm

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You are definitely being put through the mixer over there. I must admit I was struggling to see what they fixed on you and need to go back a bit and catch up. Nothing makes common sense with us on how they think. Not allowing you to draw the money and then holding your bank card ransom. I would just get out and not come back. Pay the hospital bill loan from your employer and just go. I hope your leg is healing and maybe get it checked out back in the States.

That's the plan, though on this salary, the "pay the hospital bill loan" part is going to take a while.
I kind of think that was the point.
Step One: Find a potential employee with a skillset and credentials you need but cannot afford to pay market value to.
Step Two: Create a situation where they have no choice but to accept employment from you and owe you money.
Step Three: Make sure the salary you pay them is low enough that they cannot quickly or easily pay back the money they owe.
Under Chinese law, an employee cannot terminate his employment with a company he owes money to. If Chinese law allowed them to charge interest, they'd doubtless have done it.

It sounds like an entrapment agreement which they are known to do when dealing with countries signing up for the loan agreements (Belt road initiative). I have heard of my sons friends going over to teach English and it wasn't quite what they expected. Just get out and get yourself fixed as soon as possible.

Yeah, that's about the size of it, and I have commented extensively on FB in condemnation of their damnable debt-trap diplomacy. The thing is, I knew what it was when I signed it, but stuck in a hospital bed with a leg ripped open (unable to leave) and with one day left on a visa (unable to legally stay unless I signed), I had no choice and they knew it.

I'll give China this much credit and this much only: it wasn't always this way. When I came here for the first time in 2012, the country was slowly and awkwardly inching its way toward something that could almost be mistaken for liberty. Then Xi came along, and he brought out the worst in the country, not just politically but socially and culturally as well.

I'm working on getting the hell out as soon as I am legally able to do so.

I hadn't realized it had changed with him coming in. It is though greed has taken over and they think people are dumb enough to fall for it. I gather you had no choice and was just a case of bad luck. Get better soon and hope everything passes by quickly.

Thank you for writing this @patriamreminisci. Very, very sorry to read the details of what you are going through right now. Nightmare indeed!

I believe it is very important for Americans (and everyone else really ...) to understand the implications of all you have to say. About the reality of what is happening in China. Today. Right now!

I do wonder about your apparent choice to identify yourself (unless intentionally incorrect ...) with your name on your account. While we like to talk, here on the Steem blockchain, about freedom from censorship and the like, still this information could fall into the wrong hands. Which would lead to what consequence for you there in China? I do admire your courage!!

Definitely hoping to hear more from you, about ultimately how it is you are able to escape from the situation in which you find yourself!

Upvoted, followed, and resteemed. Doing my small part to get your story out, which I hope will be followed by many others of my fellow Steemians ...


P.S. As I wrote about in "the Challenge" section of this post, how do we "find" each other in here?! So ... FYI, I found your post, after trying to catch up a bit on the posts of @newageinv, by reading this post. In which I read a little bit about @skramatters, so clicked on their account. And in their blog, found they had resteemed your post here ...

Thanks for your reply, and for the resteem. Here's hoping the publicity I'm seeking doesn't come around to bite me in the proverbial @$$. It's great to hear feedback.

As for the name, it's intentionally incorrect though it's a bit of a moot point. If the censors in China actually considered my article a threat, it would not be hard to look up who is the only foreign patient admitted to the 306th recently and find me. The obvious option was to not name the hospital, but I have another problem: the less information I provide, the easier it is for one of China's "Fifty Cent Party" to claim the story is a "Western fabrication to defame China," which is the standard catch-all description for any article that dares speak ill of China.

Essentially, the only thing that has kept me from already ending up in front of a firing squad is that China's censors are typically too busy going after media outlets in Mandarin, which are far more dangerous to them since that's the language the rank and file can understand. Media in English is a secondary priority because anything that can't be understood by the majority of their population is less dangerous to them. Also, Steemit has not been on their radar until recently, though that may change soon as I discovered I now need a VPN to access Steemit (which was not the case prior to the NPPCC conference in March), which means it has been added to the vast sea of blocked websites in China.

Great to hear from you @patriamreminisci. Replying and resteeming is the least I or anyone else here on the Steem blockchain can do, so my pleasure to do my small part to "get the word out."

"Also, Steemit has not been on their radar until recently, though that may change soon as I discovered I now need a VPN to access Steemit (which was not the case prior to the NPPCC conference in March), which means it has been added to the vast sea of blocked websites in China."

[emphasis added mine]

This does not surprise me in the least. While not my area of focus, I think there must be an amazing number of "expat" Chinese on the Steem blockchain. For example, I have personally "talked" with one of them - @crypto.talk, the great founder of the @partiko mobile phone app. While I don't know for certain, that app alone has presumably played a key role in the number of Chinese people who are actively engaged on the Steem blockchain.

While I don't have anything like your stresses and reasons for doing so, I have taken the preventative step of using a VPN. I use NordVPN and have found it to be quite good (here's a review ...), at least as far as I understand the technology. Out of curiosity, what to you use that is accessible to you there? (Please don't answer, if it may potentially put you at risk ...)

Gotta get back to the pressing issue I have of my own, at the moment. Getting my tax accounting done, for my decision to invest in the "cryptosphere," before the U.S. deadline ...

Thanks for your reply and hope to hear more, as your time and opportunity permit.


P.S. You may wish to come read this reply @skramatters.

Awesome @roleerob I'm really glad my resteeming this seemed to have snowballed. Organic steem is the best steem !

Posted using Partiko Android

Yes, @skramatters, thank you for resteeming this post. You may wish to show how it came to your attention.

Not ideal, from my perspective, what we all experience on the Steem blockchain, to gain even a little recognition. But ... Better than nothing! 😏

Hopefully it will snowball! 👍

Posted using Partiko Android

I simply happen to follow the original poster. I resteemed it after being the first to upvote or comment and due to having some increased exposure lately it was resteemed by a large account and went from a penny to 16+ usd overnight.

Any steemian with a pulse will surely upvote this..

All the best

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Yes, @skramatters ...

"Any steemian with a pulse will surely upvote this.."

... we agree that should be the case!

Thank you for your role in getting the "snowball rolling!" 👍

Posted using Partiko Android

Holy shit! This is aweful. I don't think I can even come close to understanding your situation because I have not lived an ordeal like that. I don'tknow what I'd do in a situation like that, but it is great that you were able to report about it.
I hope you leave soon and well. All the things you have narrated should be in a book.
I have always been suspicious of any society where rulers control everything, including people's minds, to the point of making them loook like robbots.
We used to criticize the cubans and we become worse than them in terms of all the crap we have allowed our politicians to do.
ironically, the cubans, along with the russians, the syrians, and the chinese are the only big players that support our current government. What a coincidence, right? and to think that there are tons of americans who enjoy the benefits of your society and do nothing but undermine your culture because of its militarism (authoritarianism?) in favor of countries/ideologies with a long history of totalitarianism. It does not make any sense to me, but that's how it has been.

Yes @hlezama ...

"ironically, the cubans, along with the russians, the syrians, and the chinese are the only big players that support our current government. What a coincidence, right? and to think that there are tons of americans who enjoy the benefits of your society and do nothing but undermine your culture because of its militarism (authoritarianism?) in favor of countries/ideologies with a long history of totalitarianism. It does not make any sense to me, but that's how it has been."

... ironic is one way to say it. Coincidence? No ... Just despotic, authoritarian governments banding together to keep people in bondage ...

If you have time, I would like to understand what you are saying here about "... do nothing but undermine your culture because of its militarism (authoritarianism?)" Would you care to elaborate?

Sure. I was thinking about Americans (also europeans) who, with little to no knowledge of the situations in so-called 3rd-world countries, apposed American interventions just with the argument that these countries should be left to solve their own issues. They easily buy into the "governments of the people" rhetoric and validate, without corroboration all the good things these authoritarian governments are allegedly doing for their people.

None of those defenders of socialism would survive a week in venezuela, living like the average citizen. None of them would tolerate the excesses, mediocrity, cynicism of our government officials and yet they want us to just "enjoy it".

None of them would be able to live under a government that has deprived its people from the most basic technological advances, while their hypocritical leaders enjoy the best of the 1st world.

These 1st world socialists/communists voice their discontent an phony solidarity from the conforts of the first world.

Well spoken @hlezama and I agree completely with all you say here. As I hope you and others appreciate, not all Americans support, in any way, what is currently happening in Venezuela. Of those, many of us were never in favor of Chavez, who rose to power there. Without him, how many would have even heard of Maduro?

Sadly, however, far too many Americans are as you describe. Some from simple ignorance and unwillingness to educate themselves better. The worst are those who actively seek to impose their own "socialist order" here in America. In response to "what about Venezuela?" they'll simply say "well, they just didn't do it right!" Foolishness ...

As for American (or any other) intervention, the stakes are very high. It is reported here that the Russians landed planes recently in your country with tons of equipment and troops. I could say a lot more on this point, but probably best to refrain ...

You and your people are in the thoughts and prayers of many around the world. Hoping that soon, you will be liberated. Peacefully? For your sake, we can only hope.

Holy hell! What a nightmare! I am speechless and only hope you put this place in the rear view mirror asap...

Posted using Partiko Android

I'd love to. Unfortunately, with an exit ban until I've paid back the loan, and no means of paying it back except a 15,000 RMB per month salary (Beijing's cost of basic living is about 22,000 RMB monthly) and no access to my US bank, I don't know how.


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Oh my! I feel your pain.. that is really terrible! I hate to see and know someone is in pain and worst one cannot get the help he needs especially if he is in a foreign land.

I fervently hopes that this gets to the rightful authority and connections to be able to get to you!

And thank you for bringing this up and giving everyone a heads up. It was mighty strong and compassionate of you to share your experience. I know words are not enough to console whatever pain you are experiencing.

Be brave!

Posted using Partiko Android

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