He ran a small, rural church and distributed popular anti-COVID masks inscribed with Bible verses. He is prosecuted for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
by Li Xiaosi
The CCP continues to consider Brother Chang Hao, the preacher of a small, rural church in Yunnan as a threat to national security. Despite his poor health and the fact that his wife and mother, who are also seriously ill, remain without support, the Procuratorate to the Zhenxiong County People’s Court under the administration of Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province, has decided that Chang Hao should remain in jail, and his case should proceed to trial.
Last April, “Bitter Winter” reported that on April 14, Chang Hao’s church was raided by the police who took away Bibles, Christian books, and the anti-COVID masks inscribed with verses from the Bible he distributed, which had become popular in the area and had especially disturbed the authorities.
Chang Hao was taken away by the police and what exactly had happened to him remained initially unclear to his family. It then emerged that he had been detained and later formally arrested for the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a catch-all accusation used in China against all sorts of political and religious dissidents.
On November 22, his family contacted several human rights organizations, with a statement that was also supplied to “Bitter Winter,” stating that the Procuratorate plans to prosecute him for “publishing and forwarding false information on the Internet, inappropriate speeches, causing serious chaos in public order, and having a bad social impact.”
Relatives believe that all these accusations simply refer to the fact that Chang Hao operated a non-authorized house church and distributed the anti-COVID masks with Biblical verses.
Chang Hao’s case confirms that “illegal” preachers are detained first, and then some kind of vague accusations will be found to keep them in jail and prosecute them.