President's Corner

Dear advocates for religious freedom,

China Aid just concluded hosting the first Asia Pacific Religious Freedom Forum in Taiwan where over 200 leaders from 27 nations gathered to support religious freedom.

In February, China Aid launched an international campaign to free Christian human rights lawyer Zhang Kai from detention. Zhang Kai has been a strong advocate for religious freedom and human rights representing Christian house church leaders, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners and forced abortion cases throughout China.

Zhang Kai recently began representing Christians being persecuted through a forced cross removal campaign primarily waged against the officially sanctioned TSPM churches in Zhejiang, known as the “Jerusalem of China,” in which over 2,000 crosses have been forcibly demolished. Unfortunately, on August 25, 2015, on the eve of a scheduled meeting with the visiting U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein, Zhang was subsequently arrested, accused of “spying” and held in a secret “black jail.” Approximately six months later, Zhang was coerced into “confessing his crimes” on state-run tele-vision, including denouncing his partnership with China Aid and its legal defense project.

As a result of the campaign China Aid launched at www.freezhangkai.com, and support from advocates of religious freedom such as you, Zhang Kai was released from prison on March 23 and is “out on bail, awaiting trial.”

Zhang Kai’s case is only one of approximately 350 human rights lawyers and legal professionals who have been harassed and detained since July 9, 2015. More than two dozen still remain in prison awaiting trial for serious “national security” charges.

I am writing from Oxford, U.K. where I am attending the annual Religious Liberty Partnership (RLP) meeting. The RLP is a Christian network of organizations dedicated to religious freedom, where our partners remind me that persecution against the church continues to intensify, including the persecution of Christians by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. These stories of persecution seem to be increasing and we can be easily discouraged. Together, though, we can be both on alert and confident with hope in our Christian faith.

Thank you again for your partnership with China Aid.

Bob