ICC NOTE: Countless Christian pastors and church members remain incarcerated in China for their beliefs. Many are in locations considered to be black jails, facilities where there is no contact with the outside world and placed under 24 hour surveillance. Yet in only what can be seen as the power Christ has upon His followers, many of those languishing in prison have a renewed sense of hope. Much like Pastor Li Guozhi of the Huoshi Church in Guizhou province who has been in prison for eight months. Recently, he penned a letter expressing how his faith has only strengthened. His faith and strength are both aspects to be emulated by those in China as well as other Christians abroad. 

7/22/2016 China (China Aid) – A pastor imprisoned in China’s central Guizhou province on a falsified “divulging state secrets” charge penned a letter to his wife on June 30, thanking God for the chance to rest after serving as a pastor for 23 years.

“This is a good place to rest, where I am cut off from the rest of the world and brought closer to God,” Li Guozhi, a pastor at Huoshi Church who goes by the pseudonym Yang Hua, wrote of his jail cell. “I can no longer hear the clamorous noise, but can better listen to the Lord’s voice.”

Government personnel took Yang into police custody on Dec. 9, 2015, after he attempted to prevent them from confiscating one of the church’s hard drives. They sentenced him to five days in administrative detention a day later for “the crime of obstruction of justice.” On Dec. 15, authorities charged him with “gathering a crowd to disturb social order” and extended his sentence five more days.

When his wife came to collect him on Dec. 20, she saw officials herding him into an unlicensed vehicle as he donned a black hood. Upon inquiry, she learned that his charge had changed, and that he was being transferred to criminal detention for “illegally possessing state secrets.” On Jan. 22, his relatives received a notice that he had been formally arrested for “divulging state secrets.”

In an interview with his lawyers, Chen Jiangang and Zhao Yonglin, Yang disclosed methods the prosecutors used to torture him when he refused to confess to his charges, including standing on his toes and threatening to kill him and bring harm to his family. As a result, Chen and Zhao sued the prosecutors for “using torture to extort a confession” and asked that they be dealt with according to the law.

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