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Feature: The Life of a Chinese Diplomatic Courier
Dubbing himself a "postman", Xiao Qing is far different from an ordinary letter carrier. His "mailbag" has been filled with documents concerning China's security and national interests for over twenty years.
Xiao, now 77-years old, started to work as a diplomatic courier in the Chinese Foreign Ministry soon after the ministry was formed.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Xiao said that during his two-decade career as a diplomatic messenger he has "traveled to countless places in the five continents and spent nearly one-third of his life time on trips."
Being one of the first diplomatic messengers of the new China, Xiao still has a special sentiment towards the diplomatic mailbag that has accompanied him for more than twenty years.
"It seems that the mailbag has become part of our body," Xiao said, adding that "it has to be with us every moment when we are on an errand, either eating, sleeping, or even going to the wash room."
"We, diplomatic couriers, have actually participated in nearly all China's major diplomatic events." Xiao is obviously proud of his job.
"The Bandung conference, the resumption of China's seat in the United Nations, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, and the return of Hong Kong and Macao to the motherland," Xiao listed his involvement in some important events in China's diplomatic history.
According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomatic messengers possess special passports and enjoy special diplomatic treatment, Xiao noted.
"Our work has always been important to the state leaders," Xiao said. "As a matter of fact, the formation of the first group of
messengers were guided directly by former Premier Zhou Enlai."
Reflecting on his experiences carrying diplomatic documents to and from Beijing and foreign cities, Xiao still has fresh memories about the excitement, risk, and challenge in his trips.
"In the 1950s and 1960s, not many countries had established diplomatic relations with China, which meant we had to occasionally stop at airports of some countries with non-official ties with China," Xiao said.
"And because of the harsh international environment for China at that time, Chinese diplomatic couriers became the target of some anti-China forces," Xiao sighed, adding that "we had to experience being tracked, cheated, and even intimidated."
"In the 1950s, there was no direct flight between China and Soviet Union, and often, it took us two or three days to reach Moscow on a single trip."
"What is more, because the plane compartment was not airtight, the temperature in the compartment was often 30 degree Celsius below zero, and we had to suffer the cold for the whole trip," Xiao said.
Now it is much convenient, Xiao noted, saying that "it takes only seven or eight hours to reach Moscow from Beijing."
The direct flights between China and the majority of countries in the world have ended the numerous stopovers, which the young messengers have not experienced, Xiao said with a smile.
"My colleagues all love their work and we regard the safety of the documents as more important than our lives," Xiao said.
To be a diplomatic courier sometimes means risking your life, Xiao said frankly.
For people like Xiao, who joined the Chinese revolution before the founding of the new China, the difficulties, hardness, and risk in carrying the diplomatic documents were like "a piece of cake".
He recalled that during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-1953), the so-called "United Nations army" under the control of the U.S. once bombed Chinese vehicles that were clearly marked as "diplomatic couriers".
"One of my colleagues was seriously disabled by the bombing," Xiao said.
Since the founding of New China, six Chinese messengers have died on their trips, Xiao lamented.
Fortunately their contribution to China's diplomacy has been recognized. Many messengers have been promoted to high-ranking positions in the Foreign Ministry, and one former courier even became a vice foreign minister, according to Xiao.
"Now our successors, those young generation diplomatic couriers, serve not only as a bridge between the Chinese government and its diplomatic institutions abroad, but also as an envoy passing peace and friendship around the world", Xiao said.
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