prayer breakfast in Washington as authorities refused to return his identity card and passport, a Christian news agency reported Friday, February 17.
Compass Direct said Zhang Yinan applied for a passport in December to attend the February 2 National Prayer Breakfast with President George W. Bush and other prominent guests. However following the request dozens of police forces allegedly surrounded his house and followed his wife to the hospital where she works as a nurse.
An estimated 50 to 60 policemen were allegedly assigned to a 24-hour surveillance of Zhang’s house until the prayer breakfast began. There was no immediate reaction from Chinese authorities. Zhang, 50, was detained on September 26, 2003 and imprisoned for two years on charges of “attempting to subvert the national government."
He was released last September, but the Lushan County Police Bureau has retained his personal documents, including his identity card, making it impossible for him to travel, Compass Direct reported.
PRAYER JOURNALS
Police in Henan used Zhang’s personal prayer journals as evidence to accuse him of trying to overthrow the government, human rights watchers said earlier.
Zhang reportedly demanded the return of these journals and other documents, but police officer Li Haitao, Zhang’s chief interrogator "refused", Compass Direct said. Li was quoted as saying that had "to continue studying the journals to find any other incriminating evidence against Zhang."
Since his release from the Ping Ding Shan City Bailou Labor Camp in Henan Province on September 25, Zhang has been trying to continue preaching the Gospel as a traveling evangelist, although without an identity card he is not able to use public transport, a hotel or leave the province.
"I am called by God to be an evangelist. No matter how long and hard the winter is, it will eventually pass," he reportedly said.
OPEN LETTER
Zhang also wrote an open letter to thank Christians worldwide who had "prayed" for his released and supported his during the imprisonment. He said he was inspired by late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech to describe his newfound, but partial, freedom: “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
He reportedly wrote to his son from prison not to give up hope. "From Wang Mingdao’s arrest in August 1955 until today, Chinese house church preachers have been imprisoned continuously. But the Lord has raised up lilies among the thorns," he wrote.
"Our Lord Jesus loves China, and He allows one generation after another to endure the suffering and go through many kinds of trials so that we may be built up in Him." Most of China’s estimated 80-million Christians attend house churches. China’s government has denied human rights abuses, saying Christians are free to worship in government approved churches. 17 million attend the two officially organized churches of China — the Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement (12 million) and the Catholic Patriotic Association (5 million members), according to estimates. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from China).
