• 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
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • TESTIMONIES
  • 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

Christians Traveled to Beijing to Seek Justice but Were Detained Instead

08/27/2018Lin Yijiang |

Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square

After the local police forcibly removed their churches’ crosses, believers traveled to Beijing to talk to the central authorities but were sent back and later detained.

In May 2015, local public security officers forcibly removed crosses from multiple churches in Lishui city, Zhejiang Province. The pastors and co-workers of several churches were unwilling to accept this situation and decided to go to Beijing to seek justice. On June 1, 15 congregation members from three churches – Pingyuan, Dongcheng, and Bethlehem – left for Beijing intending to submit to the authorities a joint petition and demand an explanation for their actions.

In the morning of June 2, the 15 Christians went to Tiananmen Square and staged a protest against the removal of crosses. Police officers there talked to the believers and agreed to help them look into the matter. They also recorded the believers’ names, home addresses, and contact information. At 8 o’clock that evening, police officers offered the Christians to take them to a hotel to rest for the night. It wasn’t until the vehicle drove outside the city that one of Christians, Zhang Decai (pseudonym), realized that they were not being taken to a hotel. One of the officers in the car confirmed his suspicions that they were on their way back home.

On the way to Lishui, the Christians were only allowed to use the washroom with the police escort and were taken directly to the Shuige police station upon their arrival in their hometown.

After returning to Lishui, the police released Zhang Decai due to his old age, while the others were forcibly taken to a jail in Lishui city, where they were detained for 10 to 15 days.

Afterward, the local government exerted pressure on Mr. Zhang’s eldest son, ordering him to prevent his father from protesting with other believers in the future. Since then, one of his sons calls Mr. Zhang every day to monitor him, which causes frequent arguments between them. Additionally, officials from the neighborhood committee often come to visit Mr. Zhang or call to ask about his whereabouts.

The government’s campaign to remove crosses from Protestant and Catholic churches in Zhejiang in 2015 caused numerous protests across the province, resulting in the detention and imprisonment of believers and church leaders. Hundreds of lawyers and human rights advocates were arrested and detained by the police that year, too. One of the most active defenders of churches’ rights, lawyer Zhang Kai, subjected to residential surveillance at a designated location after he had opposed the government’s campaign to remove crosses and demolish churches.

Reported by Lin Yijiang

Tagged With: Christian Faith in China

Lin Yijiang profile picture
Lin Yijiang

Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.

Related articles

  • Changchun Sunshine Reformed Church Banned in Jilin

    Changchun Sunshine Reformed Church Banned in Jilin

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

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

  • 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

  • Henan: Pastor Sentenced to 5 and a Half Years for Printing Bibles

    Henan: Pastor Sentenced to 5 and a Half Years for Printing Bibles

Keep Reading

  • Pastor Geng Zejun Committed to Trial
    Pastor Geng Zejun Committed to Trial

    The preacher of the Church of the Rock in Shizuishan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, remains in jail and may be sentenced in July.

  • Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan
    Christian from Wenzhou Prosecuted in Sichuan

    Lin Xuesui wanted to be a missionary. He has ended up being a prisoner of conscience.

  • 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.

  • China: Christians Arrested for Attending Conference in Malaysia
    China: Christians Arrested for Attending Conference in Malaysia

    The detained pastors and laymen legally went to Kuala Lumpur to attend an event organized by well-known evangelist Tang Chongrong.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • France Joins China and Russia by Introducing Special Police Techniques Against “Cults” by Massimo Introvigne
  • “Socialist Spiritual Civilization”: The Great Comeback of an Old CCP Concept by Hu Zimo
  • The Fate of Tibet After the Inevitable: A Tibetan Opinion by Ugyen Gyalpo
  • Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan: Massive Re-Education to Prevent Tibetan Self-Immolations by Lopsang Gurung
  • Wang Hai: Miao Christian Pastor Still Harassed and Investigated by Mo Yuan
  • L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and the Visual Arts. 7. The Scientologist as Artist by Massimo Introvigne
  • Mark Fino: No Asylum in Japan for Evangelist Threatened in Bangladesh by Tom Eskildsen

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