Three members of an imprisoned pastor’s family have sneaked out of China to the US with the help of activists after complaining about an extended campaign of harassment by Chinese authorities, a Christian rights group said on Tuesday.
Zhang Shaojie’s (張少傑) daughter, son-in-law and one-year-old grandchild landed in Dallas, Texas, and have now gone to Midland, according to US-based group China Aid. It said that an underground network of activists helped the three leave China via Southeast Asia.
Zhang, who led the Nanle County Christian Church in Henan Province, was this month sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of fraud and disturbing public order.
Zhang’s church is sanctioned by the government in Beijing, which allows worship only in state-monitored groups, but got involved in a dispute with local authorities over land for a new building.
Land disputes are common in China, but in this case, Zhang’s popularity prompted other Christians to rally around him in what they say is a matter of religious freedom.
China Aid founder Bob Fu (傅希秋) said that after Zhang was sentenced, his elderly parents received threats and were harassed, his daughter’s car was kept by police and Nanle officials mobilized government agencies to write to the court to ask for a longer sentence.
Calls to Nanle Police and the Nanle Communist Propaganda Department were unanswered. A Henan Police Department press officer said he did not have information about Zhang’s daughter, Zhang Huixin (張慧馨), and her family.
Fu said Zhang Huixin, her husband, Sun Zhulei (孫著磊), and daughter, Sun Jiexi (孫婕茜), were on June 23 blocked at Beijing’s airport from leaving the country by Chinese security officials citing “national security.” Nanle and Henan police officers were also at the airport monitoring them, he said.
Fu then flew to Southeast Asia to activate a network that escorted the three out of China and to the US. He said US authorities gave the family authorization to enter the country for one year, during which they can decide to appeal for asylum on the grounds of religious freedom.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Beijing, Nolan Barkhouse, would not confirm the account.
“Our family and our church want to thank the US government and many anonymous church leaders in different parts of the world for helping assist our family’s hard-fought freedom,” Zhang Shaojie was quoted as saying in an e-mail from Fu. “Our family comes here to raise awareness of the deteriorating situation of religious freedom in Nanle and in China.”
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