By BosNewsLife Asia Service
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– A Christian aid and advocacy group is raising funds for a Christian human rights defender who is in need of urgent cancer treatment that she cannot afford after a Chinese medical team allegedly canceled a crucial operation because of her work with prominent Christians and activists.
ChinaAid said the 47-year-old Chinese woman Huang Yan, who assisted “many” prisoners of conscience such as human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, was refused “a necessary operation for her ovarian cancer” despite previously having one in the fall of 2013.
“Public security bureau officials beat Huang in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and she lost her unborn children both times,” added ChinaAid, which supports Christians in China. “During the second instance, the officials burst into the bathroom, where she had just miscarried her child,
and continued to abuse her. At that time, her husband was taken to the public security bureau and received injuries at the hands of the authorities.”
As a result of the miscarriages, she is believed to have contracted cancer. She also suffers from diabetes and other threatening conditions, according to ChinaAid investigators.
Huang reportedly said that she suspects that medical staff was pressured by government officials to refuse her treatment, because of her involvement with what ChinaAid called “important Christians” and other human rights activists.
MEDICAL VISA
“Recently, she arrived in a safe environment and is awaiting the approval of a medical visa to Taiwan. If the Taiwanese government refuses to grant her a visa, she is in a location where she can receive medical treatment as a backup plan,” added the group.
ChinaAid said that she still needs financial assistance “to have this important procedure” and ChinaAid is currently taking emergency donations on her behalf through website chinaaid.org
Huang arrived at her current location shortly after authorities reportedly detained her on November 26, 2015, on what her supporters called “falsified charges” of “spreading false terrorist information”.
When she was transferred to Guangzhou No. 2 Detention Center last year, her charge was changed to “obstructing official business,” according to Christians familiar with the situation. While imprisoned, she was reportedly treated at a military police hospital, where ChinaAid said “she was restrained with 23-pound and 15-pound shackles, subjected to 12 ultrasounds in four days, and coerced to take a drug.”
The 15-pound restraints remained on her ankles for so long that they began to bleed and waste away, the group claimed. “Additionally, officials beat three other Christian women incarcerated with her for holding a Bible study.”
Chinese officials did not directly comment, but have previously denied rights abuses. China’s Communist government is known to have expressed concern about the spread of Christianity as well as Christian denominations and house churches operating without government approval.
ChinaAid says it “supports Chinese Christians who are persecuted for their faith like Huang Yan” and assists “persecuted Christians” in promoting religious freedom, human rights, and rule of law.
