UPDATES: One Christian Charged with Subversion; Another Released Early from Prison

China Aid Association

(Beijing—Jan. 18, 2012) A dissident and Christian who has been in detention for 10 months has been formally charged with subversion while another Christian who was sentenced to a three-year prison term has been released almost five months early after a ChinaAid publicity campaign on her behalf.

ChinaAid has learned that Zhu Yufu, a baptized Christian and a longtime political dissident who has been in police detention in Hangzhou, coastal Zhejiang province since last March, was formally charged this month with “inciting subversion of state power.” The charge stems from a poem Zhu wrote around the time of the Arab “Jasmine Revolution” calling on people to take to the streets, his lawyer, Li Dunyong, said.

Zhu was summoned by police from the Wangjiang police station in the Shangcheng Sub-division on March 5, 2011 and taken into custody. On April 11, he was formally arrested for “inciting subversion of state power.” Zhu, whose political activism dates back to the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, had previously been imprisoned twice for a total of nine years.

See ChinaAid’s earlier reports on Zhu’s case:
https://chinaaid.org/2011/05/christian-human-rights-law-firm-takes.html
https://chinaaid.org/2011/04/christian-and-political-dissident-in.html (Note: the date reported here of his detention should be March 5, 2011, not March 15, 2011)

See also the BBC’s report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16597830

Meanwhile, in a joyous development, Tian Hongxia, who also uses the English name “Tina,” was released on Jan. 12, nearly five months before the end of her prison term in May. The young mother, whom authorities had previously released from prison for the birth of her second child, had returned to prison just before Christmas 2010 to finish serving her three-year prison sentence. She was convicted along with Beijing house church leader Shi Weihan for printing and distributing Bibles and other Christian literature.

Last month, ChinaAid launched a Christmas campaign on Tian’s behalf, releasing a video that she had left for her husband and children just before returning to prison a year earlier, and urging supporters to write to her in prison.
Just before her release last week, prison authorities told her that they had received many letters for her, but refused to hand them over to her. Curious, they asked her who the letters were from. She replied with a big smile, “They are all the God-parents of my children.”

Tian is required to report weekly to the prison until May.


China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.chinaaid.org

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UPDATES: One Christian Charged with Subversion; Another Released Early from Prison

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