The religious leader’s family has been informed that the first degree decision sentencing him to five years in jail was upheld on October 25.
by Qi Junzao
The family of Elder Zhang Chunlei was informed only this month that on October 25, 2024, the Guizhou Provincial High Court upheld the Guiyang Intermediate Court’s judgment sentencing him to five years in prison for the nebulous charge of “inciting subversion of state power and fraud.”
The case of Elder Zhang has been shrouded in secrecy and procedural irregularities since 2021, when he was first detained.
Elder Zhang is the main founder of Renai Reformed Church, a house church in Guiyang, a prefecture-level city with a population of 4.7 million and the capital of the south-western Guizhou province. Zhang had been one of the signatories of the document against the 2018 Regulations on Religious Affairs drafted by Pastor Wang Yi, of Chengdu’s Early Rain Covenant Church, who is also in jail.
On September 30, 2018, the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Nanming District in Guiyang banned his church. They alleged that he and his group set up a religious venue without authorization and organized religious activities and accepted donations in violation of the Regulations on Religious Affairs. They were forced to cease religious activities and dismantle related facilities. Consequently, Zhang and his congregation had to conduct Sunday worship services in restaurants and hotels due to the loss of their meeting halls.
In 2019, due to holding Sunday gatherings in a local hotel, the church was visited three times by personnel from the religious affairs bureau and police. The door was sealed twice, the cross used for worship was removed, and its computers and other supplies were confiscated. In July 2019, the landlord of the house rented by the church was contacted by the authorities, leading to the church moving out of the property.
On March 16, 2021, over a dozen church members were taken into custody by the Nanming District Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau and police. Zhang tried to secure their release but was detained for eleven days for “illegally operating a religious organization.” Following this period, he was re-detained on vague suspicions of “fraud.”
He was formally arrested and charged with “fraud and inciting subversion of state power,” which are charges often used against leaders of house churches. His trial commenced on November 29, 2022. Subsequently, there was no further information released about the verdict for several months. His wife, Yang Aiqing, and his attorney repeatedly sought information but were consistently denied any updates, with the pretext that the case involved national security issues.
The trial on November 29, 2022, did not announce a verdict. Zhang was eventually sentenced for “inciting subversion of state power and fraud” only one year and eight months later, on July 24, 2024, by the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court, receiving a five-year prison sentence.
The verdict has now been confirmed on appeal.
Uses a pseudonym for security reasons.
