One News Now
By Bill Bumpas
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
■ Supporters of a Christian human rights attorney are coming to his defense after Chinese media claim the lawyer confessed to breaking the law.
Zhang Kai was detained six months ago, the day before he was scheduled to meet with the U.S. ambassador-at-large for religious freedom.
The lawyer had been denouncing the Chinese government’s campaign to remove hundreds of crosses from church buildings in the Zhejiang province.
Kai had not appeared in public after his arrest until he was shown in on TV “confessing” to disturbing social order, endangering state security, and engaging in unprofessional behavior.
China-born civil rights activist Bob Fu suspects that torture was used against Kai “to crush his will.”
Fu himself was once arrested and tortured by Chinese authorities before escaping the country with his wife, who was also arrested.
The New York Times reported on Kai’s arrest last September after he was accused of “threatening state security” while visiting a church.
The newspaper story explained that Chinese President President Xi Jinping has been targeting both human rights attorneys and religious expression in the communist-run country, and so Kia was a natural target due to his work.
According to Fu, Kai told him he would attempt to fight the pressure as long as he could.
Kai knew imprisonment was a possibility but he still worked to defend religious freedom, says Fu.
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