(Guiyang, Guizhou province – December 20, 2024) On December 8, 2024, the family of Elder Zhang Chunlei of the Guiyang Ren’ai Reformed Church just learned that the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court rejected Elder Zhang Chunlei’s appeal and upheld his five-year prison sentence for incitement and fraud by Guiyang City Intermediate Court. The Provincial High Court’s criminal ruling was dated October 25, and it took more than a month for the family to see the verdict.
On March 16, 2021, more than a dozen believers from the Guiyang Renai Reformed Church were conducting a worship study together in the church when suddenly, the National Security Council, the civil religious authorities, and the police barged into the church; they did not show any identification and took some of the believers to the police station.
Elder Zhang Chunlei was informed and went to the police station to find out what was going on and was subsequently detained. After 37 days of detention, he was arrested and investigated for “suspected fraud,” and four months later he was investigated for “inciting subversion of state power.
The case went to trial on November 29, 2022, but none of the “witnesses” or “victims” were given the opportunity to appear in court that day, and Elder Zhang Chunlei’s family members failed to appear in court. The case dragged on until July 24, 2024, when the Guiyang Intermediate People’s Court issued a first-instance verdict on the two charges against Elder Zhang Chunlei: Elder Zhang Chunlei was sentenced to three years and six months for the crime of “inciting subversion of state power” and two years for the crime of “fraud,” a combined sentence of five years in prison until March 16, 2026. The court also sentenced him to recover the “fraud” amount of RMB 14,400 and fined him RMB 5,000.
Zhang Chunlei expressed his disapproval of being convicted of inciting subversion of state power. As for the conviction of fraud, he felt that it was a gross violation of religious sentiments, and that it was equivalent to treating offerings as stolen money and churches as dens of thieves, which is firmly unacceptable. Pastors of Reformed churches do not directly manage finances, and also use system designed to prevent corruption. Elder Chunlei Zhang appealed the verdict in early August 2024 to the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court.
The second trial at the Guizhou Provincial Higher People’s Court remained out of session. The first trial court found Elder Zhang Chunlei guilty of two offenses:
(I) Criminal facts of inciting subversion of state power
During the period from March 2018 to February 2021, Defendant Zhang Chunlei, through social internet platforms beyond the borders such as Facebook, successively forwarded to multiple friends “My Statement: a Faithful Resistance”, “Without Fear of Repression, Guangzhou Church Insists on Holding Christmas Evangelistic Sermons”, and other articles and pictures written and published by hostile forces within and outside China, and by reformist religious organizations, which seriously distorted our country’s religious policy, incited religious hatred, undermined national unity, spreading reactionary rhetoric, and attempting to subvert the people’s democratic dictatorship and overthrow the socialist system. 21 articles and pictures, which, after being reproduced and published, were followed and browsed by others.
(ii) Criminal facts of fraud
In December 2014, Defendant Zhang Chunlei illegally founded the “Guiyang Ren’ai Reformed Evangelical Church” in Guiyang City and served as an elder of the church, and without authorization, in the name of the church, he set up an illegal religious venue on the 27th floor of the Zhongtian Business Harbor in Guiyang City’s Nanming District, organizing and hosting illegal religious activities, and accepting donations of a religious nature; the church was not registered, but was operating under the name of a social organization.
Unauthorized activities in the name of social groups, belonging to illegal civil organizations, was banned by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Nanming District, Guiyang City, on August 12, 2019, according to law. From October 2019 to February 2021, Zhang Chunlei concealed the fact that the Guiyang Renai Reformed Evangelical Church was an illegal organization, and deceived the victims Xu Chaoying, Liao Ailin, Xiang Yu, Gao Xiaomei, and Chen Fuqiong, on the pretext of collecting “offerings”, with a total of RMB 14,400 yuan. The total amount was 14,400 yuan.
In this regard, the defense lawyer put forward the following defense opinions:
- The first verdict found the facts to be unclear, Zhang Chunlei does not constitute the crime of inciting subversion of state power;
- The first trial did not notify the victims of fraud to appear in the court procedural violations, Zhang Chunlei did not conceal the church was banned by the civil religious authorities, Zhang Chunlei did not squander the believers to pay the offerings, therefore it does not constitute the crime of fraud;
- The sentence of the first verdict of the crime of fraud is too heavy, I hope the court of second trial return the case for retrial or change the sentence.
In the second trial, Zhang Chunlei’s defense proposed to exclude illegal evidence; access to the investigating authorities’ synchronous audio and video recordings of the interrogation; retrieve evidence from the victim; hold a hearing in the second trial; notify the victim and witnesses to testify in court; and send the case back for retrial, among other applications.
The Guizhou Provincial High Court made the following final decision of the second instance on October 15th:
- The fact found in the first instance judgment and the evidence listed shall be confirmed.
- The Court is of the view that the appellant Zhang Chunlei’s actions constitute the crime of inciting subversion of state power by publishing articles and pictures through the Internet that distorted China’s religious policy, attacked and discredited China’s state power and socialist system, and intentionally incited religious hatred, undermined national unity, and presumed to subvert the regime of the people’s democratic dictatorship and overthrow the socialist system.
- Zhang Chunlei fictionalized facts, concealed the truth, and cheated others out of their property, the amount of which was large, and his actions constituted the crime of fraud. Zhang Chunlei committed several crimes, and should be punished in accordance with the law.
- The first trial judgment applied the law correctly, the sentence was appropriate, and the trial procedure was lawful.
- In accordance with the provisions of Article 236(1)(a) of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China, the verdict is as follows:
- The appeal is dismissed and the original verdict is affirmed.
- This ruling is final.
The following picture is the Criminal Ruling of Guizhou Higher People’s Court, totaling 8 pages.
Elder Zhang Chunlei’s mere re-posting of a pastor’s statement on Facebook and the news of the Guangzhou Reformed Church’s street evangelism became evidence of his “crime of inciting subversion of state power,” and the verdict is so absurd that it underscores the weakness of the regime.
While churches have been convicted of “fraud” for collecting voluntary offerings according to a 2,000-year-old tradition, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches established by the Chinese government also collect offerings without being convicted of the crime. So it is clear that the the Chinese government is using the charge of collection of offerings as “fraud” to suppress the house churches, and to make the house churches, like the Three-Self Patriotic Movement churches, the tool of the government.
(By Lemon, Special correspondant to ChinaAid)
