Government Releases House Church Historian From Labor Camp

Public security officials released Zhang Yinan, a Protestant house church historian, from a re-education through labor (RETL) camp in Henan province on September 25, according to the China Aid Association, a U.S. NGO that monitors religious freedom for Chinese Protestants. Officials instructed Zhang about what he could say in public about his case, and they refused to return his ID card.

After Zhang conducted interviews with house church Protestants about government persecution, public security officers detained him on September 26, 2003. He was charged with subverting the Chinese government and socialist order. The Pingdingshan RETL Commission found writings in Zhang's prayer journal to be "anti-Party" and "antisocialist," and sentenced him to a two-year term. About the time of Zhang's original detention, public security officers also detained Zhang's wife and fellow church member Xiao Biguang. Both were released within a few weeks.

In December 2004, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an Opinion that "it considered the deprivation of liberty to be arbitrary" in Zhang's case, and asked the Chinese government "to take appropriate steps to remedy the situation." For further information on Zhang Yinan and Xiao Biguang, see the CECC's Political Prisoner Database.