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| Zhang Chongzhu’s detention notice. Translation available upon request. (Photo: China Aid) |
China Aid
By Ava Collins
(Wenzhou, Zhejiang—Feb. 16, 2016) Authorities criminally detained the pastor of a government-sanctioned church in China’s coastal Zhejiang in the early afternoon of Feb. 5 for charges of leaking state secrets.
Pastor Zhang Chongzhu of Wenzhou’s Pyongyang Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) Christian Church has been in custody since Sept. 8, 2015, after publically opposing the ongoing cross demolition campaign in Zhejiang. His official charge, “stealing, spying, buying, or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence to entities outside China,” is the same as that of Zhang Kai, a prominent human rights lawyer who has been detained in “black jail” since Aug. 25, 2015.
Members of Zhang Chongzhu’s church believe that he may have been singled out for a formal criminal detention because he met with a U.S. diplomat in Shanghai last year.
China Aid reports on cases like that of Zhang Chongzhu in order to expose abuses of human rights and religious freedom in China.
China Aid Media Team
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