Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: January 31, 2022
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| Pastor Huang Yizi with his family (Photo: ChinaAid source) |
(Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province—January 31, 2022) Recently, Huang Yizi, the pastor of Feng Wo Tang Church, disclosed to independent media that he had been relentlessly harassed in the past 6 years since his release. Huang Yizi was imprisoned twice for fighting against the government’s forcible removal of crosses.
Some departments intimidated him on a regular basis. One police officer named Zheng constantly asked people to threaten Pastor Huang Yizi, warning him that he will be imprisoned again. A short while ago, Zheng Shasha, an official of Fengwo town Religion Bureau, came to Huang’s church. He told the congregants that Pastor Huang was not qualified for delivering sermons due to his previous incarceration. Church members and co-workers refuted him on these claims.
When Zhejiang Province forcibly removed crosses in 2014, authorities arrested Pastor Huang Yizi in August 2014 for “gathering people and disturbing social order.” Pastor Huang organized a Christian protest to fight against the cross removal and received a year-long sentence. After his first release, authorities accused him of “stealing, spying, buying, and illegally providing national secrets and intelligence to foreign countries.” They placed him under designated residential surveillance for five months on September 12, 2015.
Pastor Huang Yizi was detained in a small dark room in secret during the designated residential surveillance. He could not wash his face, shower, brush his teeth or cut his. He was released on December 27.
Huang Yizi disclosed that he familiarized himself with Criminal Law and shared the gospel with inmates during his sentence. A Yazhou Zhoukan journalist interviewed him after he was released. The journalist noticed that Huang looked great spiritually, and he said to the journalist:
I felt that for Christians, our body is confined, but our soul is free because we didn’t commit any sin. Christians live an honest life in the world, and we are not for a specific person, but for God. I was investigated for 5 months of fraud, embezzling public funds, and foreign infiltration. None of these [charges] were real. Finally, even the police officer who investigated the case told me ‘I admire you Christians. You all hold justice dear, I don’t understand why the government harmed you.’
Government officials continue to surveil Pastor Huang years after his release. Huang joined other pastors in signing the “Joint Statement by Pastors: A Declaration for the Sake of the Christian Faith” launched by Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church in 2018 despite his relationship with the government.
Pastor Huang Yizi sent out a prayer request in early 2021, stating that he doesn’t have freedom although he was released 5 years ago and is constantly surveilled, summoned, and arrested. His sermons were deleted on the website. He had a sense that he would be imprisoned for the 3rd time and asked God to have mercy on him and asked Christians to intercede for him.
~ Yu Bing, ChinaAid Association Contributing Reporter
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