Walking into China - Winter 1981-2

Walking
I looked across the long military style bridge that stood before me. On the other side was Communist China and adventure. I had stated when I was five years old that one day I would learn to speak Chinese and go to China. Here I was twenty years later on the cusp of realizing one more Dream.

I looked across the hundred or so meters of metal bridge with wood planking for a road way. It was a bridge where no vehicles drove, with barbed-wire covered barricades at both ends. On either side in seemingly endless rows I could see soldiers of The People's Liberation Army standing at the ready facing inwards to scrutinize all who walked the gauntlet.

I had just talked my way into China, now I had to face the music – military music. I took a breath, whispered a quiet prayer, and stepped forward into history.

These were the waning days of the hardline Maoist regime and China was in flux, but everyone knew that what I was doing could mean imprisonment and even death. I smiled, walked calmly and even whistled a bit as I walked slowly towards my destination and destiny.

I knew very well how the poor people of China had languished under Mao's authoritarian government, while in some way they had also been liberated from a dreadful past.  I had come to bring hope to these people.  I had a Plan and I was determined to execute it and initiate change in the ancient Middle Kingdom. 

Thinking
I had a model from Chinese Buddhism in mind as I prepared to share democratic ideas as an alternative to tyranny.  China had become over 80% Buddhist within thirty years of being introduced according to census data from their history. Social conditions then were almost identical to those of Mao's China when I arrived.

Mao's China was a threat to the world at that time. It was like North Korea today – with a 'supreme leader', paranoid, heavily armed, with a huge nuclear arsenal and a belligerent attitude towards all outsiders and non-conformists.

Something had to be done to change the direction of that nation and the hands of governments were tied in the dance of diplomacy.  I was a Chinese Scholar, an expert in their Classical period, ideas, history, language, art and so on, with a degree from the University of Toronto and several months of living in Taiwan. As a democratic citizen I took responsibility and acted when others could not.

Talking
My Mandarin was pretty good by then, in spite of my limited talent for language learning. I marched slowly, looking side to side into the eyes, minds and hearts of these young soldiers, all in green uniforms with automatic weapons across their chests as one long unbroken line of defense and hostility and danger.

I smiled and walked and imagined a new China that could emerge in twenty years. The risk seemed worthwhile. If China did not change then the world would be destroyed. 

No one could get into China in order to influence the direction events would take now that Mao was dead, even though his wife was on trial for treason on television. I knew the Chinese would come to Canada one day and I was hoping they would arrive in business shoes rather than army boots so I told them about free market capitalism.

Hoping
Now halfway across the bridge I saw a light dawning in my heart and over the ancient Sleeping Dragon - China. I calmly and compassionately looked into their eyes and tried to communicate that I was a friend and that I had come to bring something wonderful – hope.  My personal encounter with the great Marcel Marceau, inventor of modern mime helped me to communicate non-verbally.

I walked towards the last possible point of destruction – Customs and Immigration. If I could get through there without them searching my bag I would be fine. But they could search me, arrest me, imprison me and even execute me for simply talking about democracy.

I was the last passenger from the train I rode from Hong Kong to the frontier. The Customs officials all looked at me as I walked in and surprised them. They had likely already heard about me coming from the officials on the other side of the bridge who had admitted me after a lengthy political meeting in their open workspace.

Thirty of them had gathered to discuss how they should deal with me. I had shown up out of the blue and told them I wanted into China and my passport had already been stamped by their office in Hong Kong.

This was unheard of and unprecedented!  I asked politely and with a compelling and intimidating political argument in quite good Mandarin to be admitted.  They would not disagree with Mao - at least not yet.

This caused quite a stir among them and they were forced to accept my interpretation of Maoist doctrine and let me in.  I knew more about current ideological trends in China than some members of the Politburo and the Communist Central Committee. They had never met anyone like me before.

Flirting
The woman in the green uniform scowled a bit as I walked up and placed my bag on her counter and smiled at her. Where are you going? To Hang Zhou? Why? To visit my friend and fellow Chinese scholar from Canada. How long would I be in China? About there months. She began to smile a bit.

Let me see your passport. What's this stamp from Taiwan? I told her and her associates what I had told those Border security officers at the train station on the other side of the bridge. They also bought my argument and we had a few stifled laughs over my strange official designation.

I am a student at a Chinese university. Which one? Tai-Da. Oh, in Peking? No, in Taipei. Shock!  Taiwan and Mainland China had been enemies since 1949.


Arguing
That's not in China! she said as mouths dropped open all around in disbelief at my audacity.  Quiet hands slipped towards holstered guns and machine-gun triggers. "That's not what Chairman Mao said about it. He says that Taiwan is part of China - a province - and that there is only One China." I argued

Therefore I should be allowed to travel freely as other scholars in Chinese universities do and I should also receive the student discount for travel and accommodation. They were flabbergasted, but they signaled me forward shaking their heads in disbelief. I was jubilant within. This was me using Mao's own doctrine of One China. "One China" principle (一個中國原則/一个中国原则).


I counted on the reputation of all Chinese bureaucrats of the day coming into play. They were reputed to be too lazy to pick up a piece of paper let alone do any kind of work. She waved me through with a sweet smile and fluttering eyes.  

Traveling
I jumped on the train to Guang Zhou City where I stayed overnight before the eighteen hour train journey to the ancient capital city of Hang Zhou near Shanghai. The stream driven train made it's lumbering way across the great central rice plain and onward towards the coast. This was all railway rolling stock from Canada and I ate a lot of Canadian wheat products as I traveled through China.

I planned to tell the staff and students in China's most respected art college  about democracy, free-market capitalism, human rights and the open society. I asked them to carry these great ideas to the ends of their nation to share peace and hope with all. I had found hope in these things and I knew others could too.

This seemed like the best possible place to launch a new set of revolutionary ideas. And these were the best possible people to do it. 

Leaving
The Chinese revere their classical artists above all other citizens in all other professions or pursuits. This is a deeply rooted value that is in all Chinese and is in their culture, their customs, their value system and more.

This is an ancient value rooted in their collective DNA. This was protracted counterrevolution. These artists have been instrumental in the renewal of China and it's modernization.

See Mao's On Protracted War (simplified Chinese: 论持久战; traditional Chinese: 論持 久戰).

I threw my heavy bag over my shoulder, turned and walked away with relief.  Within a few weeks I would deliver my cache of ideas, travel in China's heartland, visit Shanghai, be interrogated by the Chinese Secret Police and then flee on a night train to avoid another discussion about my actions in Hang Zhou.

Getting into China was not easy. Getting out almost became impossible. But so much seemed at stake and worth the risk.

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Peace in El Salvador - The Canadian Connection

The Circumstances of Life

Circumstances of life landed me in a situation where I could provide leadership that resulted in the end of the civil war in El Salvador. This was not something I thought of. It was something that happened to me in large part because I am Canadian.  That permitted trust among those who had been killing each other for so long.

Early in my career working in the church my wife Tamara and I adopted a child in El Salvador through a Christian organization. We had Hector Blanco Iglesias in our financial care for several years and got little notes from him and an occasional picture of his smiling face.  I always wanted to do more for the little fellow.

When I was a student at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey I had made a very good and lasting friend named Joseph 'Joe' Castleberry, Princeton University chaplain and youth minister. Joe is an exceptional person and we became fast friends. We were drawn together and stayed in touch.  This was a time when liberation theology was popular in churches and lecture halls.

After a year I returned to Canada while he finished his degree and then went to Columbia University NYC to complete a doctorate in education. He then went quickly to El Salvador to follow his dream of ministry in Latin America and opened a church in a small premises downtown in the capitol San Salvador. 

His Spanish language abilities are extraordinary and he's interesting so the church rapidly grew. Joe had even come to Canada to be in our wedding party and grew to love our country and people.  He's gifted in many languages.

He moved to San Salvador with his wife Kathy and they had had two little girls in the process. El Salvador had been embroiled in a bloody civil war for fourteen years and the nation was divided along political lines. The American backed government was waging war against the Communist rebels in the hill country. 

America's biggest bombing mission between WW2 and “shock and awe” in Baghdad was in El Salvador during that war. There were still mortar rounds falling on the city while I was there and everyone was on high alert.

The military had rolled onto the campus of the National University of San Salvador and had blown it to pieces, shooting students and staff in their classrooms and leaving the place pockmarked by shelling as a monument to tyranny and injustice. I saw the remnants of all this with my own eyes. 

Workaday world

During this period I had worked at a church in Hinton, Alberta and then moved to another in Napanee, Ontario.I was there sitting in my kitchen relaxing on a Sunday afternoon when the phone rang. 

It was Joe telling me that he had a problem, with a capital P. What's up? He said, “I opened a small church in San Salvador across the street from the National University. After a while some members of the Communist Party started attending and many of them have been converted and have relinquished violence.” That's great I said, so what's the problem...Problem?

“Well,” he continued, “recently some members of the government party have begun attending our church too, including the brother of the military dictator. Now every Sunday morning I find myself at the front of the church fixing to preach and all I see is these two violent factions sitting on either side of the sanctuary glaring at one another. 

The place is tense and I need a way to release that pressure. It's unnerving and I don't know what to do about it. Any suggestions?” I had studied administration which involves problem solving so he thought I might have learned about this kind of situation in school.  I had not.

The idea that moved things

Why yes! I have suggestion. It looks like you have an opportunity. With both parties there you could bring them together to talk and help them negotiate a peace treaty that would put an end to this bloody war. “You really think so?” Yes I do. They trust you don't they?

Joe bought the idea and began moving his friends swiftly towards a new life of peace and reconciliation. So he cautiously set about bringing up this plan with those involved. They also saw the opportunity to do what was right – to nurture peace. Salvador means Saviour.

This process went on for a couple of months during which time we talked it through on the phone while he acted it out on the ground.  I proposed that they build their future peace upon the Canadian model. 

Then Joe called again to tell me they had achieved an agreement and that a date had been set for the signing of a cease fire. I was thrilled when he invited me to come to El Salvador to be a part of this historic event.

An unusual study leave - success with less

I had some study leave available from my job as a minister and decided I would do a study of Latin America. :) The study leave came with a grant and I added $800 to the budget. 

So stopping the civil war in El Salvador cost me less than $2000. It's noteworthy that those who were sponsoring this war of representation had spent more than a billion dollars over fourteen years. That small price is what I call good economics.

San Miguel - "Welcome to hell!" said our guide.

While there we also traveled across the country through the rebel held mountains in order to visit Hector Blanco Iglesias in San Miguel. This city was the place where the Colombian drug cartel laundered their money in those days and it was a very dangerous place, filled with criminal gangs and gangsters. The notorious American street gang MS13 started there shortly after the war ended.

Little Hector attended a Christian school where the startled principal told me they were constantly being attacked by thugs. She was surprised to see me as I was the first sponsor who had ever come to see a child. I brought Hector a soccer ball from Canada and took him out to buy soccer shoes and dinner in a restaurant. The little boy with the hair lip was ecstatic and empowered.

We traveled to San Miguel with one of Joe's church members, who was from that city and was also the economic adviser for the Communist Party of El Salvador. We had to make the return trip in one day as there were banditos and rebels everywhere with little civil law or civility in many places. 

The infrastructure - bridges, power lines, roads and so on was blown to pieces - literally. The people lived in poverty, longing for justice and peace. There was tension in the air as the last week of war passed.

Rebels in the Mountains

We stopped at a mountain village on the return trip. We had been invited for dinner at the home of a Christian dentist. They asked me to speak to locals who were the poorest people of El Salvador in the region of La Palma. There were few lights in the dark meeting tent but thousands appeared out of the shadows to meet 'the Canadian'.

This was the rebel mountain stronghold where they famous La Palma art was produced to finance their side of the war. The government dictatorship was generously financed by the US government. Those people had nothing! Their revolution was financed by indigenous art.

They had no food, no work, no public security and no one to protect them from the troubles of life. They had no doctor, no teacher, no hope and no help. We prayed for all of their needs and for their nation. 

Tottering on the Brink of Peace

As it tottered on the brink of peace I comforted them with the news that Canadian peace had come to El Salvador. The trip back to San Salvador along bandit infested roads that night was uneventful.

I stayed in El Salvador one week which seemed to be months long because we did and achieved so much. During that time we visited the bombed out university as well as the Catholic University where some priests, their housekeeper and her daughter had been murdered. We later visited a coffee finca [farm], some volcanoes, some Inca ruins and had dinner in a posh restaurant overlooking the capitol.

We had lunch with the dictator at a Pizza Hut [or his brother – I was never sure which] early in the week. We had dinner with the man who would become the first democratically elected president of El Salvador . He came to Joe's home where I barbecued chicken for the meal. He arrived with a heavily armed group of bodyguards and left with a heart full of hope for his people.

Most important of all, as I flew out of that city on Saturday, those two men met to sign the ceasefire agreement which was later ratified in a place called Chapultepec, Mexico. This proved to be a very important model for other peace agreements.

With soaring hearts

So as I winged my way overhead they met at a table below to sign the papers. I went back to Canada via Belize and Miami feeling a sense of joy and gratitude to be included in this important historic action. Also other countries in Latin America soon followed this lead and ended their wars. This ushered in democracy, liberty and hope for countless millions.

That was a fun, fulfilling, useful and instructive week of high adventure. It was a week when being a Canadian brought abundant hope to poor people in a distant land who have since helped many others do the same. Canada is the vehicle that helped to deliver peace to El Salvador.

This experience reinforced for me that all things are possible to those who believe. I believe in Canada. I know we can do much more still. I have seen the evidence.

Dr. Castleberry later impacted Ecuador in a similar way. Now he is president of university in Washington State, a sought after speaker, a published writer and scholar and leader in America society. He has three daughters and is married to Kathleen.

Salvador - live link - This movie by Oliver Stone helps us see the challenges faced by El Salvador at that time.