Local authorities in Xinjiang’s Manas county arrested four people after a villager reported about their whereabouts.
In late March, a man ventured into a village to run some errands. A villager identified him as being the son of a local house church leader, Liu Zhang (pseudonym), and reported his whereabouts to the police.
Around midnight, the village cadres and the police raided the house of the 80-year-old Mr. Liu in Manas county of Changji prefecture. They seized several copies of Bible as well as nearly 130,000 USD in cash. The police also took control of two single-story houses, both owned by Mr. Liu.
The police arrested Mr. Liu, his son, and two Christians who were his guests that day. All four are currently held at a ‘transformation through education’ camp in Lanzhouwan town in Manas county.
Reported by Li Zaili
Li Zaili (uses pseudonyms for security reasons), born in Xinjiang in 1982, went to the United States to study at the age of 16. After graduating from university, Li returned to Xinjiang and worked in journalism. In 2014, Xinjiang authorities started detaining large numbers of Muslims in “transformation through education camps.” Learning of that, he left his original position and began independently collecting and organizing information related to “transformation through education camps,” and submitted articles for publication in overseas media outlets. After Bitter Winter was founded in May 2018, Li Zaili became a special correspondent of Bitter Winter covering Xinjiang, Xizang and some other regions in China.