On June 4, Safeguard Defenders published a new report on the practice of "forced travel," by which politically targeted individuals are removed from their home regions during sensitive periods. The report, Holidays in Handcuffs, is presented satirically in the form of a glossy travel magazine. From its opening "Letter from the Editor":

Every year, like clockwork, when major political events or sensitive anniversaries are about to occur, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sends activists and petitioners on “forced travel”. Often those targeted include the same list of long-established rights scholars, lawyers, journalists and intellectuals. There are now so many sensitive dates that these people end up being routinely “forced travelled” several times a year. It doesn’t matter if they are young or old, in good health or ailing, almost without fail they will be escorted by a team from the Public Security Bureau (police) or government department on a “holiday” so that they cannot “cause trouble” at home.

[…] Through interviews with recent victims and analyses of media stories, this report traces how the practice of forced travel declined (but did not completely disappear) during the Covid pandemic (2020 to end 2022) when strict lockdowns were periodically implemented. It also notes how China’s economic problems have shaped a more budget form of forced travel in the post-Covid era.

The use of parody in this report, including in the cover, design and headlines, is not to diminish the seriousness of forced travel. Forced travel is still an illegal and arbitrary form of detention. It violates the fundamental human rights to freedom, liberty of movement, expression and privacy. Rather, parody is employed as a novel approach to raise attention to this repressive practice and to highlight the absurdity of the CCP in pretending forced relocation, surveillance and detention is just a “holiday”. [Source]

The phenomenon was previously highlighted in 2018 by Jianying Zha, who wrote for The New Yorker about her activist brother Zha Jianguo’s experiences of "being traveled."

The Chinese term 被旅游 ‌bèi lǚyóu is an example of what has been called the "involuntary passive." Xinhua described the construction’s use in a 2010 report on 被 bèi‘s selection as 2009’s "Character of the Year":

Nowadays the character is being employed by Chinese to express a sentiment deeper than just the passive voice: they are using it to convey a sense of helplessness in deciding one’s own fate.

The new usage may not conform with grammar rules, but it become an Internet buzzwords in 2009 as it reflected dissatisfaction over the abuse of official power.

"Bei Zi Sha," or "being suicided," is one example.

[…] "Bei Zi Yuan" or "being volunteered" is one example which is used to ridicule some government departments that force people to do something while alleging they "do it out of their own will."

[…] "Bei" was not censored in the government-run poll of buzzwords, and grassroots’ voices are finally being heard and even recognized by the government. [Source]

The original Xinhua article is no longer online, but the involuntary passive has endured. In 2023, it was chosen by CDT editors as one of 104 terms explained in our 20th Anniversary Lexicon ebook, where it is represented by the term 被代表 bèi dàibiǎo, or "be represented." The full entry from the ebook is republished below:

be represented (被代表 bèi dàibiǎo)

Sardonic expression referring to Chinese authorities’ claim to be the sole legitimate representatives of the Chinese nation and its people. Although grammatically identical to a neutrally passive statement, the term often carries the same sardonically contradictory barb as an English phrase like “to be volunteered.” To “be represented” in this sense is to have the Party speak and act on your behalf, regardless of your own thoughts on the matter.

Bèi dàibiǎo is an example of what CDT’s Xiao Qiang and Sinologist Perry Link described as the “involuntary passive” in a 2013 essay for The Wall Street Journal:

The imbalance in power between guiguo and pimin [see entries] is sometimes highlighted by the satirical use of bei, which originally meant “quilt” or, as a verb, “to cover,” but about a century ago became a grammatical device used for translating the passive voice in Western languages—like the English phrase “my wallet has been stolen.” Now, wo bei hexie le, or “I have been harmonized,” has become a standard quip when censors strike. The role of bei in this phrase is important. It signals that I suffered the action; it was done to me, and I in no way willed it.

This “involuntarily passive” implication has led to a range of other sarcastic uses. One is bei xingfu, which literally means “happiness-ified.” In the Mao era, it was said that the Great Leader mou xingfu (sought happiness) for the people; to be on the receiving end of this search, then as now, is to be bei xingfu. We look at the officials who “represent” us and see ourselves as bei daibiao or “undergoing representation.” In each case, the point is that the “esteemed country” acts upon the “fart people,” not the other way around.

In a 2014 article published in the International Journal of Chinese Linguistics, C.-T. James Huang and Na Liu wrote that “bèi XX constructions are used in satirical writings and can be interpreted in three ways: (a) ‘x gets reported or regarded as having the property denoted by XX; (b) ‘x is forced to acquire the property denoted by XX’; (c) ‘x is treated, acted upon, in a way involving or described by XX’.”

Further examples of each of these usages include:

• to be middle-classed (被小康 bèi xiǎokāng), or officially designated as middle class for political purposes, regardless of actual material circumstances
• to be employmented (被就业 bèi jiùyè), or falsely reported as employed in order to inflate employment statistics
• to be satisfactioned (被满意 bèi mǎnyì), or reported to be satisfied with an official policy or response
• to be emotionally stabilized (被情绪稳定 bèi qíngxù wěndìng), or reported to be emotionally stable in the aftermath of a disaster or other “sudden incident”

• to be stepped down or retired (被退休 bèi tuìxiū), or forced to retire
• to be volunteered (被自愿 bèi zìyuàn), or forced to volunteer
• to be donored (被捐款 bèi juānkuǎn), or forced to donate

• to be traveled (被旅游 bèi lǚyóu), or escorted on a trip to ensure one’s absence from a sensitive location at a sensitive time
• to be mentally-illed (被神经病 bèi shénjīngbìng), or subjected to involuntary psychiatric detention on spurious grounds
• to be tea-drinked (被喝茶 bèi hē chá), or questioned by public security or other officials (see entry)
• to be wall-raped (被墙奸 bèi qiángjiān, a pun on 被强奸 bèi qiángjiān, meaning “to be raped”), or blocked by the Great Firewall (see entry)
• to be river-crabbed (被河蟹 bèi héxiè), or harmonized—that is, censored (see entry and blockquote above)