{"id":6662,"date":"2016-02-29T22:25:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T03:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=6662"},"modified":"2016-03-01T10:31:36","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T15:31:36","slug":"the-case-of-zhang-kai-refuting-lies-clarifying-the-facts-and-setting-the-record-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/the-case-of-zhang-kai-refuting-lies-clarifying-the-facts-and-setting-the-record-straight","title":{"rendered":"The Case of Zhang Kai: Refuting Lies, Clarifying the Facts, and Setting the Record Straight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zhang

Zhang Kai. Photo via his blog, with the tag \u201cHope.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Lawyer Zhang Kai was taken into police custody in Wenzhou on August 25, 2015. He was placed in residential surveillance in a designated location for six months, after which he appeared on Chinese television to make a \u201cconfession\u201d on February 25.<\/p>\n

Zhang, 37, appeared thin and haggard, and his hair made him look like a concentration camp prisoner. We still don\u2019t know what kind of ordeal he suffered during those six months. Looking at the language used in his \u201cconfession,\u201d which was delivered in the tone and style of the official media, viewers were left feeling that he had been forced to read from a script prepared for him by the authorities.<\/p>\n

On February 28, Zhang Kai\u2019s parents announced that Zhang had been transferred to criminal detention at 9 p.m. on February 26. According to Pastor Bob Fu\u2019s Twitter feed: \u201c[Zhang Kai\u2019s] father was taken to Wenzhou by that city\u2019s public security and domestic security police on February 27. By the morning of the 28th he was at the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau where he will likely be held temporarily and deprived of his freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

I. Chinese media reports on Zhang Kai\u2019s case mention \u201cFu XX and Yang XX of an overseas organization\u201d and also charge that \u201ceach year this overseas organization used documents he provided to concoct lists of so-called \u2018Top Ten Cases of Religious Persecution,\u2019 which were included in \u2018China Human Rights Report\u2019 and contained unbridled vilifications of China\u2019s image.\u201d Pastor Bob Fu (\u5085\u5e0c\u79cb), of the Texas-based China Aid Association, Purdue University Professor Yang Fenggang (\u6768\u51e4\u5c97) who directs Purdue\u2019s Center on Religion and Chinese Society, and Guo Baosheng (\u90ed\u5b9d\u80dc), author of the annual \u201cTop Ten Persecution Cases,\u201d have all issued separate statements:<\/p>\n

Professor Yang Fenggang\u2019s statement (translation by China Aid):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zhang Kai is a friend of mine. He spent a year with me as a visiting scholar of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University in 2013-2014. He was one of the most courageous lawyers in defending Christian churches in Wenzhou whose rooftop crosses were facing forceful removal by the authorities. It is apparent that all Zhang Kai did was providing legal counsel to the willing churches, encouraging their leaders to use the existing law and regulations to defend their own rights. He urged both Christians and government officials to abide by the law and do not do anything beyond legal boundaries. His purported confession on Wenzhou Television on February 25, 2016 appears to me to be scripted and he appears to be physically exhausted. The few \u201cevidences\u201d shown in the television program all appear to be dated before 2013, so that even if they were true documents they have nothing to do with Zhang Kai\u2019s activities in Wenzhou between August 2014 and August 2015. I urge Wenzhou authorities abide by the existing Chinese law and release Zhang Kai immediately.<\/p>\n

Fenggang Yang
\nFebruary 25, 2016<\/p>\n

Bob Fu\u2019s Statement regarding forced Confession on TV by jailed Human Rights Lawyer Zhang Kai (translation by China Aid)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zhang Kai is seen in official Wenzhou TV today for the first time since he was detained and put into a \u201cblack jail\u201d six months ago. He looks he was under duress in making that ISIS\/North Korea style and scripted remarks about his \u201cadmitted crimes of harming state security and disturbing social order\u201d simply for his organized legal defense work against the forced cross demolition campaign which still continues.<\/p>\n

I am proud of being Zhang Kai\u2019s close friend and fellow Christian brother. I do believe he is innocent. Although saddened and painfully watching him \u201ccondemning\u201d me and ChinaAid on CCP\u2019s official TV, I know he must have been going through enormous suffering and torture in the past six months (little did the evil authorities knows that he and I actually made an pre-arrangement before his imprisonment that he will never compromise nor betray us in any way unless he faces insurmountable hardship!). We are always proud of you and love you, dear brother Zhang Kai. Keep up a good spirit and may the comfort of the Holy Spirit be with you and heal you after you are free from physical bondage.<\/p>\n

Although my name and ChinaAid are mentioned at the shameful CCP\u2019s official propaganda as \u2018overseas force supporting Zhang Kai\u2019s legal defense work,\u2019 we will never be intimidated nor cease to continue to promote religious freedom for all in China.<\/p>\n

Bob Fu<\/p>\n

February 26, 2016<\/p>\n

Statement of Pastor Guo Baosheng on the Zhang Kai Case<\/strong><\/p>\n

At midnight on August 27, 2015, the Chinese authorities forcibly put lawyer Zhang Kai under residential surveillance in a designated location on charges of \u201csuspected gathering a crowd to disrupt social order and stealing, procuring, or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence to overseas entities.\u201d Zhang had been representing the lawful rights and interests of those trying to prevent the demolition of church crosses in Wenzhou.<\/p>\n

On February 25, 2016, Zhejiang Television broadcast a program featuring Zhang Kai\u2019s so-called confession. In that program, the authorities said that one of the charges against Zhang Kai was that he had provided materials to overseas entities and concocted the so-called \u201cTop Ten Cases of Religious Persecution.\u201d This charge is clearly related to the lists of the top ten persecution cases involving Chinese Christians that I have posted on the China Aid website in recent years (see attached). But I state here that these documents were not provided by Zhang Kai and have no connection to him whatsoever. These posts were based on materials I was able to find on public websites both in China and overseas. This is an example of the authorities\u2019 attempt to frame Zhang Kai without the slightest bit of evidence. On this basis, I state for the record that the charge of \u201cstealing, procuring, or illegally providing state secrets or intelligence to overseas entities\u201d against Zhang Kai is totally baseless.<\/p>\n

Pastor Guo Baosheng<\/p>\n

February 26, 2016<\/p>\n

II. A lesser-known lawyer from Jiangsu named Wang Xiuping (\u6c6a\u79c0\u5e73) also took part in the Wenzhou church cases. He related Zhang Kai\u2019s work in Wenzhou and the real picture of Wenzhou Christians\u2019 rights defense efforts:<\/p>\n

Respected Brother Zhang Kai has confessed. The only thing I find odd about this is the fact that some people find it odd that he has confessed. I\u2019ve taken part in the Wenzhou church cases. We lawyers have exhausted all conventional means, but the courts either refuse to accept our lawsuits or else rule against us in first- and second instance. When we\u2019ve followed ordinary procedure and applied to hold demonstration marches, the authorities refuse to give approval. When Christians raise crosses to express their ordinary demands, they\u2019re treated as criminals. Below are some of the ways I\u2019m aware of in which the public has been misled with deliberate falsehoods:
\n1.In many of the original Zhejiang church cases Zhang Kai already exhausted all legal means without any result. There was no other choice but to let Christians gather to express their demands. This is contrary to reports that say that Lawyer Zhang didn\u2019t use legal methods.
\n2.There\u2019s nothing at all shameful about receiving funds from abroad to engage in rights defense. Lawyer Zhang dispensed these funds to the lawyers who have been working on these cases. Moreover, the people in charge of these so-called overseas organizations are all good friends of Zhang Kai, like Professor Yang Fenggang of Purdue University. I\u2019m also in touch with Professor Yang on WeChat. If I\u2019m working on religious cases and he wants to provide financial support, what\u2019s the big deal?
\n3.A few local Christians appeared on TV too denouncing that Zhang Kai had received huge consultation fees in the Wenzhou church cases. First of all, these were ordinary fees paid to a lawyer for handling a case. Zhang Kai was ready to go to jail from the beginning for getting involved in these huge rights-defense cases, so why shouldn\u2019t he receive such fees? Second, Zhang said on many occasions that, for the later cases he handled on behalf of the Wenzhou churches whose crosses were being demolished, his decision to take part came after difficult internal struggle. He knew there was a high risk of going to jail because of the way the local officials were dealing with things, so he decided not to have other lawyers \u201cdive into the deep end\u201d with him on these cases. Instead, he rushed to the front lines on his own.
\n4.The reports deliberately blur the distinction between demolition of illegally built churches and demolition of crosses. As everyone knows, for the past two years only one church has been torn down in Zhejiang for being an illegal structure. The rest of the demolitions have all been crosses. What\u2019s more, crosses have been torn down from countless churches that are not illegal at all. Many of the pastors who have opposed the cross demolitions remain in detention.
\n5.Judging from the video of Brother Zhang Kai\u2019s confession, he clearly appears to have lost around a third of his weight. He was once a really heavy guy!
\n6.The Zhejiang authorities are shrewdly trying to shift responsibility for the church-state conflicts they have created onto Zhang Kai and present ordinary rights defense work as a kind of treason. You have to marvel what they do. Lawyers and everyone else: We mustn\u2019t fear these hooligans and their efforts to use culture to carry out their thuggery!<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/chinachange.org\/2016\/02\/29\/the-case-of-zhang-kai-refuting-lies-clarifying-the-facts-and-setting-the-record-right\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyer Zhang Kai was taken into police c … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,136,131],"tags":[1482,625,207,1319],"views":5681,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6662\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}