In the past, having a Shanghai hukou, owning property in Shanghai, and working in Shanghai used to be the dream for many people in China’s most prosperous city. However, for Sha Qi Liang, a descendant of “Old Shanghai,” these aspects have lost their allure. In his view, if the common people do not receive the respect they deserve and are deprived of even the right to speak, material possessions lose their meaning.
Sha Qi Liang was once a software engineer who later founded an IT company. During a recent interview in Los Angeles, he expressed that the fundamental reason he fled the mainland was that he had come to realize that even Shanghai residents were not treated as human beings by the Chinese Communist regime.
The lack of a sense of security in daily life also made him feel the need to leave as soon as possible. Sha Qi Liang mentioned that he constantly felt a figurative “black hand ready to strangle him from behind” in China and it wasn’t until he arrived in the United States that his heart finally felt at ease.
Around 1998, the Chinese Communist Party was eager to join the World Trade Organization and reap the benefits of trade. They often promoted “integration with the world” domestically. Sha Qi Liang recalled that this was the phrase he saw most frequently in the media at the time. Although he had read many history books, gathered information from overseas, and understood the CCP’s habit of lying, he did not initially aspire to bring about any change. He once dreamed that one day China would become a democratic country.
As censorship of speech became increasingly stringent, more and more websites were blocked, sensitive terms multiplied, and the dream of democracy became distant. By around 2013, Sha Qi Liang noticed that even in casual conversations with family and friends, a slip of the tongue could lead to a warning: “be careful what you say!”
“Family members would tell you: if you have such thoughts, don’t talk about it with others, don’t discuss it, because you might get into trouble,” Sha Qi Liang said, noting that he felt like living in an environment of “terrorism,” where everyone had fear in their hearts.
After getting married and having children, Sha Qi Liang placed great emphasis on his two children’s education. He didn’t want his children to be unable to distinguish right from wrong, so he frequently talked to them about history, from the Korean War to the various political movements in China, and even the events of June 4, 1989. Each time, he would remind his children: don’t share these thoughts with others, as it could lead to your father being imprisoned.
While he had not personally experienced being brought in for questioning or detained by the authorities, Sha Qi Liang asserted, “It’s not because the Communist Party is kind or lenient towards me, but because I am afraid myself. For self-preservation, Chinese people bury their true thoughts deep inside, this is the common state of survival.”
During the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, the atmosphere of public opinion in China became increasingly tense. “When Li Wenliang passed away, they (the CCP) feared people would post ‘candles’ on social media; during the ‘blank paper movement,’ they feared people would hold up a piece of blank paper…” Sha Qi Liang remarked that the CCP fears everything, hence imposes restrictions everywhere, “knowing the fiery rage in people’s hearts, knowing that everyone hates it.”
The lack of freedom of speech not only made Sha Qi Liang feel repressed, but also allowed him to truly experience the feeling of hunger.
“I remember during the strictest period of the pandemic lockdown, they (the CCP) wouldn’t let us leave our homes, the government broadcasted demanding that people stay indoors,” Sha Qi Liang recalled. Their bread, milk, and eggs were quickly consumed, so they began searching for remaining canned goods, only to find them exhausted as well.
“It was the first time in so many years that we experienced hunger,” Sha Qi Liang reminisced about March 2022. The municipal government had announced a division of Shanghai into Pudong and Puxi, with weekly rotational lockdowns. Trusting the announcement, they did not stock up adequately, leading his family to experience hardship.
What was supposed to be a one-week lockdown turned into Shanghai being sealed off for three months. Even when some food was distributed on the streets after two weeks, it consisted of poor quality vegetables and spoiled meat – items he would never have bought before. The portions allocated to a family of four were the same as those given to households with fewer members, leading to everything being consumed in a matter of days. Sha Qi Liang lamented, “I never expected that in Shanghai, the most prosperous city in all of China, we could still go hungry.”
During the lockdown in Shanghai, many tragic events unfolded: some people starved to death; elderly individuals fell ill and were prohibited from leaving their homes due to a lack of nucleic acid test certificates; patients begged to go out for treatment but were blocked at the entrance of residential compounds.
Seeing residents clamoring downstairs to undergo nucleic acid testing with loudspeakers blaring, he felt as though he was witnessing scenes from a concentration camp, saying, “People lined up like zombies to get tested.” Only then were people permitted to bask in the sun for a brief moment.
Once, Sha Qi Liang refused to undergo nucleic acid testing, resulting in his health code on the phone turning yellow instantly. Subsequently, the neighborhood committee called to urge him, and finally, the police threatened over the phone, stating, “This is a national regulation, if you refuse, we will send someone to take you out to get tested.” The police even expressed their reluctance, hoping for his cooperation.
“Knowing that there would be no good outcome if I continued to resist, I had no choice but to agree to their sampling at home,” Sha Qi Liang revealed. In the past, he enjoyed sports and leisure activities, however, at that time, he lost interest in all his hobbies.
“During that period, I felt very depressed, in a kind of ‘political depression’ state,” he shared, “We were not regarded as human beings, and that is a very tragic situation.”
In late November 2022, a “blank paper movement” erupted on Middle Road, Urumqi in Shanghai. Prior to this, due to the CCP’s extreme “zero-COVID” policy, residents of a burning residential building in Urumqi, Xinjiang were locked in and unable to escape, resulting in dozens of deaths. In response, Shanghai citizens took to the streets with flowers to pay tribute.
Upon hearing about the gatherings, Sha Qi Liang was encouraged and even shared related videos on his social media the next day.
A short video titled “Sound of April” circulated during the lockdown period, providing a real account of the injustices faced by the public and the various hardships they endured during the “Shanghai Lockdown of 2022.” Soon after, the video was forcibly removed by the authorities and prohibited from being shared, with “April” becoming a sensitive term as well.
Sha Qi Liang joined in the relay of sharing the “Sound of April.” Despite having his posts deleted multiple times, he persevered by altering his approach each time, stating on social media, “If you haven’t relayed the ‘Sound of April,’ you are not a complete Shanghainese.”
Witnessing the sentencing of Ren Xiaohuan, the operator of the renowned blog “Programmer Thinks,” who resided in Shanghai and was sentenced to seven years for subverting state power through teaching people how to bypass the Great Firewall and criticizing certain policies, Sha Qi Liang felt a wave of fear: while he may not have done as much as “Programmer Thinks,” he could easily be labeled with the crime of “inciting subversion.”
“I worried about my children and wife; they might face difficulties in leading a normal life if I were arrested,” Sha Qi Liang explained. “I knew I had to leave; staying in that country without being apprehended was luck, being arrested was highly probable.”
His entire family had tourist visas for the United States. After making preparations, he kept the true purpose of their journey to America hidden from his children and took his family directly to Los Angeles.
Upon arrival, the family stopped by a coffee shop outside the airport for a brief rest. It was at this moment that he revealed the truth to his children, saying, “Listen carefully, Mom and Dad didn’t bring you here for a vacation; we came to a place of freedom, and we will not be going back.” Initially disbelieving, the children kept asking: “Is it true?”
Sha Qi Liang’s two children have since enrolled in schools in Los Angeles. Every day at school, their teachers wait outside the gate with smiles, ready to give each of them a warm hug. The children experienced a sense of warmth that they had not felt in schools back in China.
“To most people, our life in Shanghai was decent – we had a car, a house, and were considered middle class. As a Shanghainese with a Shanghai hukou, many people would find that appealing. So why go through all this trouble?” Sha Qi Liang questioned.
“In China, surrounded by lies all day long, having to tell numerous lies every day and instruct your children on what they can’t do and what they can’t think – that’s not the life I want,” Sha Qi Liang emphasized. “Coming to America, even though I have to start anew with everything, the greatest significance for me is that I can finally be a normal person, I can finally be treated as a human being.”