Zhang Chunlei has been detained by the Chinese authorities since 16 March 2021. An elder of Love (Ren’ai) Reformed Church in Guiyang in Guizhou Province, his detention began when he visited a police station in Guiyang to ask about ten Christians from his church who had been taken away during a police raid on a privately rented property where they were holding a retreat.
Upon his inquiry, police officers raided Zhang’s home, and those of several other church members, subsequently accusing him and three others of ‘illegally operating as an association’. Chen Jianguo, Li Jinzhi and Li Lin were released several days later on 20 March, but Zhang has remained in detention ever since.
Presumably by design, Zhang’s case has proven typically hard to disentangle over the past three years, with the charges against him changing on multiple occasions. On 28 March 2021 reports emerged that he had been criminally detained – meaning that any time he spent in detention from that date on would count towards any jail term if he was convicted – at this point on suspicion of ‘fraud’.
On 1 May that same year Zhang was formally arrested on the fraud charge, having already spent nearly seven weeks in detention. A November 2021 social media post by his wife later revealed further details, namely that the Public Security Bureau in Guiyang had accused Zhang of ‘not having the status of a state-approved religious clergyman while holding religious gatherings and swindling believers of about 100,000 RMB [11,600 GBP].’
Months later, in January 2022, it emerged that the authorities had levelled an additional charge of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ against him, with procurators telling his lawyer that they were reviewing the alleged offences of ‘fraud’ and ‘incitement’ as one combined case.
Zhang denies both charges. In a recent letter shared by his lawyer, he wrote: ‘I firmly deny the charge of fraud. As for inciting subversion of state power, I have no subjective intent. Both of these charges are trumped up, using political framing and economic stigmatization to cover up religious persecution.’
Indeed, targeting religious leaders and adherents with financial or political charges like fraud and inciting subversion has become a common tactic of the Chinese authorities. The former in particular is often used to undermine a religious leader’s credibility, while the latter is typically used as a catch-all to target and imprison dissidents.
That Elder Zhang would be identified as such likely relates not only to his leadership of an unregistered church, but also to the fact that he was one of the first signatories of a joint statement calling on the government to respect the basic freedoms and human rights of religious citizens after controversial Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs came into effect in February 2018.
Several other signatories to the same statement have been similarly targeted, including Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, who is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on unfounded charges of ‘inciting to subvert state power’ and ‘illegal business operations’, and preacher Li Jie of Covenant Home Church in Linfen, who is fasting approaching two years in detention without trial after he was arrested at a church retreat in August 2022 and later charged with ‘fraud’ alongside two other members of his church.
Zhang reportedly stood trial in November 2022, but the outcome remains unknown. The authorities recently indicated to him that the court wanted to issue a verdict ‘as soon as possible’, but there is little hope for justice. Zhang was previously denied access to his lawyer for six months from June 2021 to January 2022, the authorities attempting to justify this by claiming that ‘the case involves state security’, and more recently concerns have arisen for Zhang’s health and wellbeing.
‘In the Sanjiang Second People’s Hospital, around October at the end of 2023, I had an attack of cholecystitis,’ he writes. ‘My face was sallow. The doctor called me a little golden man, I stayed in the hospital for more than a month, received infusions for more than 20 days, and was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis.’
In May this year, Zhang’s lawyer visited him at the Guiyang City Detention Centre and reported that he appeared slightly thin, at this point unaware of Zhang’s diagnosis with liver cirrhosis. In July, Zhang’s family learned that an appeal for his release on medical grounds had been rejected.
Even if he is released however, the fact remains that Zhang and his wife have been subjected to over three years of injustice, and that China must not only release him immediately and without condition, but also the countless others who have been imprisoned or detained in relation to the peaceful practice of their religion or belief.
The international community must also increase pressure on the Chinese Communist Party to do this. It must not be misled by lies like those put forward during the recent Universal Periodic Review of the country’s human rights record, in which the government attempted to claim that many of the recommendations it received were either ‘already implemented’ or ‘based on false information’, and it must instead do all it can to ensure that stories like that of Elder Zhang are told as loudly and widely as possible.
By CSW’s Press and Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley