ICC Note: ICC has been following the case of Pastor Zhang Shaojie and nearly two dozen of his church members who were arrested by Chinese authorities on November 16th and 17th. Recently Pastor Shaojie’s daughter, Zhang Huixin reported that she was not only forced to flee her home to avoid arrest, but that she is now receiving threatening phone calls promising to “Wipe out her entire family” if she does not stop reporting on the churches case to international media. The arrests and crackdown, which took place in Nanle County, Henan Province, occurred despite the fact that the church was legally registered. The operation against the church came only days after China’s leaders promised human rights reforms, including the abolition of the countries notorious re-education through labor system. 
11/25/2013 China (ChinaAid) – After the arrest of Pastor Zhang Shaojie and 20 other members of Nanle County Christian Church, Zhang’s daughter and son-in-law fled the town, leaving other family members to secure a well-known rights defender as Zhang’s lawyer.
ChinaAid reported that Zhang, who leads Nanle County Christian Church and also serves as the president of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement Christian Church in Nanle County, was tricked into meeting with government officials in his church on Saturday and then detained.
The next morning, as church members tried to attend church, they were detained by officers stationed at the gates of the church.
ChinaAid has since learned that the local government attempted to prevent believers from attending church on Sunday by requiring government agencies, institutions and schools to open. As a result, some church members were required to work instead of attending church.
Additionally, school officials threated students, telling them to go back home and warn their parents against attending church activities and petitioning higher authorities about the detainments.
A church member appeals recent events outside of a Nanle
County Christian Church gathering site. (Photo: Weibo)
Zhang’s daughter, Zhang Huixin, told ChinaAid that local government officials searched the church’s second largest gathering site (of which there are reportedly 40 in Nanle County) and ordered church employees to vacate the premises yesterday.
In order to prevent their own detainment, Zhang Huixin, her husband and their 10-month-old daughter were forced to flee Nanle County. It was unclear whether the three fled to the same location.
Zhang Huixin also reported receiving more than 10 threatening phone calls since Sunday. The callers threatened to “wipe out her entire family” if she continued to call for international help and give out information about the persecution of the church.
ChinaAid also learned that those family members of Zhang’s who remained in Nanle County secured rights defender Xia Jun, who recently represented Ren Lacheng in the Enyu Bookstore religious case, as Zhang’s defense attorney. Jun immediately rushed to Nanle County.
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