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| Yong Jun, left, and her husband, Zhang Feng. |
China Aid Association
(Batang County, Sichuan—April 17, 2014) A couple in the southwestern Sichuan province submitted a request for administrative reconsideration over their detention last month for distributing Christian flyers and is being threatened to drop the case by the husband’s employer.
Wang Yue was detained for preaching the Gospel and distributing Christian flyers on March 18. Zhang, a Han Chinese who leads a house church in Batang County, was detained the same day after police concluded that he was the “mastermind” behind Wang’s actions.
Zhang was sentenced to 10 days of administrative detention. Wang, however, was released after blaming Zhang during her interrogation. “She herself said to the Public Security Bureau that her name on her ID is not Wang Yue, but Wang Fang. She hoodwinked me. Second, the police said I told her to distribute the flyers, and I became the head of a conspiracy and was detained.”
Zhang said officers came to his place of employment to detain him. “Three police officers came over and in a vicious manner, they pinned me to the floor. I said I will go with you, but …you should show me your police certificate. Only one police officer had the certificate.”
Zhang’s wife, a Tibetan Christian, was detained after her husband and sentenced to 10-days’ administrative detention. She was released on April 7.
Zhang and his wife submitted an application for administrative reconsideration on April 9, asking that police cancel the charges against him and his wife and apologize for their treatment of the couple. Zhang had heard back by Tuesday. “Yesterday morning, I received a notice from our county government, and they said they had already accepted my case. In the afternoon, the director of my bureau, [the Batang County Property Tax Bureau], came to threaten me and asked me to give up the reconsideration.”
“He also asked me to give up for the sake of the relationship to the two work units,” Zhang said, in reference to the tax bureau’s current assistance to the public security bureau.
“Colleagues in my office advised me not to [submit the reconsideration], and our director told me to give up on that,” Zhang said. “If they want to remove me from my position [as a director], I won’t care. My entire family has already discussed the matter. Even if I lose my job, we will proceed with the lawsuit.”
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