• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / Testimonies China

Believer Dies in Custody While Awaiting Trial

10/04/2018Jiang Tao |

China jail (taken from the Internet)

 

Six house church believers in Anhui Province were arrested in 2014 and kept in custody for almost two years until trial; one of them died in detention.

On September 3, 2014, Suzhou city’s Xiao county police arrested seven Christians while they were holding a gathering. One of them was released a month later while the other six were locked up in a local detention center. One believer, Zhang Xia, died in custody.

Before the arrest, Zhang Xia, 41 at the time, had a strong physique, and her fellow villagers considered her stronger than even some men in the village. While in custody, the other arrested believers from her church noticed Zhang Xia was losing weight, and she became seriously ill with time. The prison never notified her family about the declining health.

Only in August 2016, Zhang Xia’s family learned about her health problems and rushed to the hospital she has been transferred to and found her in the intensive care unit. Still, authorities did not allow them to see Zhang Xia.

When, finally, they were allowed to visit Zhang Xia, she was very weak, was coughing blood, and could not speak. Her entire body was so swollen that her friends and family had to cut her old clothes to change her into new. Shortly afterward, Zhang Xia died in the hospital.

In June 2016, after the five believers had been detained for nearly two years, the local court found them guilty of “using a xie jiao organization (heterodox teachings) to undermine law enforcement,” which is punishable according to the Chinese Criminal Code. Two of them were sentenced to two years and four months and the other three to two years and two months in prison. Two of the convicted appealed the judgment, but their appeals were dismissed.

Reported by Jiang Tao

Tagged With: Christian Faith in China, Detention in China

Jiang Tao profile picture
Jiang Tao

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia

    Two Sentenced for Attending a Christian Conference in Malaysia

  • Beijing Lampstand Church: Families Demand Release of Arrested Pastor, Co-Worker

    Beijing Lampstand Church: Families Demand Release of Arrested Pastor, Co-Worker

  • Hohhot Bible Trial: Defendants Charged with “Collusion with Foreign Forces”

    Hohhot Bible Trial: Defendants Charged with “Collusion with Foreign Forces”

  • David Lin: China Promises to Free in 2030 American Pastor Detained Since 2006

    David Lin: China Promises to Free in 2030 American Pastor Detained Since 2006

Keep Reading

  • Wang Hai: Miao Christian Pastor Still Harassed and Investigated
    Wang Hai: Miao Christian Pastor Still Harassed and Investigated

    The popular preacher from the Miao ethnic group was released in 2020 but his troubles are not over.

  • April 27, 1933: How Young Habil Became the First Uyghur Christian Martyr
    April 27, 1933: How Young Habil Became the First Uyghur Christian Martyr

    Uyghur Christians fan the flame of the death of the first of their number ninety years on.

  • Chinese Christians Compelled to Honor Deceased CCP Leader Jiang Zemin
    Chinese Christians Compelled to Honor Deceased CCP Leader Jiang Zemin

    Three-Self Church honors him as “a great Marxist we love and miss” and says he did “a good job in religious work.” In fact, he increased surveillance and persecuted believers.

  • Taiyuan Pastors Told to Teach Christians to “Always Follow the Party”
    Taiyuan Pastors Told to Teach Christians to “Always Follow the Party”

    A plan for church activities hardly includes anything Christian, and calls for studying and teaching the works of Marx and Xi Jinping, and the CCP official documents.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Sinicization of Christianity Comes to Hong Kong by Gladys Kwok
  • Is Netflix a Threat to Religious Liberty? by Massimo Introvigne
  • Trial for the Dissolution of the FECRIS: The Anti-Cultists Lose the First Round by Massimo Introvigne
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Falun Gong: Xu Na’s 8-Year Sentence Confirmed On Appeal by Yang Feng
  • China: Theological Seminaries Inspected to Check How “Sinicized” They Are by Zhang Chunhua
  • Yang Taoming: “China’s Tony Robbins” Detained by Zhao Zhangyong

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY