Source: Direct Reports from China
Date: June 25, 2018
A 36-year-old Christian from a house church was arrested in the early hours of the morning in her home and detained for a year. Even after her release, she is still surveilled and persecuted. Only because of her belief.
At about 6 a.m. on November 11, 2016, four officers led by the captain of the criminal police brigade from the public security bureau in Tuquan County, Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia, went over the yard wall and forcefully entered the home of Sui Fengzhi, a Christian since 1996 from Jiulong township of that same county. The police barked at her, still not fully awake, to get up and come with them. Startled and confused, she was immediately handcuffed. The officers, then, searched her house, and although they found no evidence of religious artifacts and materials, they still took her to the local detention center.
After seven days in custody, officers took Sui Fengzhi to a police station in Ulanhot City, Hinggan League, for interrogation, which lasted three days and nights, without allowing her to sleep. The officers were demanding to know where the church’s funds were and where her church members were preaching the Gospel. The questioning was fruitless, and the police returned Sui Fengzhi to the detention center. She was later sentenced for “disrupting social order.”
After her arrest, Sui Fengzhi’s family frantically tried to get her released, spending 26,000 RMB in bribes. She was released only after a year, on November 11, 2017.
Sui Fengzhi remains under constant strict police surveillance. Police officers frequently go to her home to check on her, and the village director keeps an eye on her and follows her around. She feels like still being in detention without any personal freedom and under severe psychological pressure.