ChinaAid shares stories of persecution

Several stories of family members persecuted by their governments are shared by ChinaAid staff member Rebecca Isaacs.

Zhang Haitao

Zhang Haitao was 44 when he was taken away by the Xinjiang National Security Bureau on June 26, 2015. 

His bank card, mobile phone, and computer were all taken, leaving his wife, who was three months pregnant, with approximately $126. 

Haitao was initially charged with inciting “ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination,” a charge later changed to “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” 

He was eventually convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” and “providing information to foreign powers” for spying purposes and was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment. Authorities also confiscated his personal property of approximately $18,846.

The basis for the conviction was 69 WeChat messages, 205 tweets, and 13 photos taken on the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang. 

Since then, his wife has been a voice for her husband’s rights protection and was beaten.

Xie Yang

Xie Yang, a Chinese lawyer, was arrested on July 10, 2015 during a crackdown on human rights lawyers. 

He was charged with disturbing court order and “inciting subversion of state power,” but although indicted for the charge, he was later exempted from criminal punishment after being imprisoned, tortured, and not allowed to speak to his defense lawyers for 16 months.

Yang is currently defending two other lawyers imprisoned by the Communist Party.

Yang’s wife was threatened with losing her job, her family, and her life. She fled from China to the United States with her two daughters.   

Su Tianfu

Pastor Su Tianfu became a believer in 1993, started serving full-time in 1997, and established Huoshi Church in Guiyang, Guizhou, in 2009. 

Because he did not join the Communist Party’s Three-Self Church, he was repeatedly threatened by government departments, then on Dec. 9, 2015, the government dispatched more than 1,000 policemen to ban the church. 

Tianfu was interrogated by the police on Dec. 15, 2015, and accused of divulging state secrets. He suffered repeated trials and punishments by different governmental departments, his bank accounts were frozen, individual church branches were sealed, and his family members were often threatened. 

Tianfu is currently in a semi-free state but cannot leave Guiyang.