The Diplomat: Ezra Jin is Free, But There Are More Pastors in China Behind Bars

This week, The Diplomat ran a moving piece by the son of prisoners and Christian pastors in China, urgently asking the world for help securing their release. 

In the article, Gao Pu poignantly pleaded for help releasing his parents, Pastor Gao Quanfu and Pang Yu, elderly Christians detained during China’s crackdown on unregistered house churches. Gao, a minister for 40 years, faces a possible 12- to 13-year sentence on fraud charges tied to voluntary church donations. Yu was arrested weeks after Gao simply out of association.

The couple are being held in overcrowded conditions with limited family and legal contact, inadequate food, and untreated health problems. Quanfu and Yu’s case reflects government pressure on churches that resist state surveillance and control. It is not unlike the case of Pastor Ezra Jin, who was similarly arrested and imprisoned in China for pastoring a Christian house church.

After a long hard fight that included international pressure, including from CPAC and the CPAC Christian Persecution Coalition, Jin was finally freed. Jin’s case gives hope that Quanfu and Yu can be freed, but they are in need of warriors to do it. 

“Without a groundswell of international support, I fear that my parents will spend the rest of their lives in prison,” writes Pu. “I respectfully, but urgently, ask governments and policymakers around the world to stand in solidarity with my parents. To the consulates and embassies in the PRC: please show up at their trials in Xi’an, China.”

“I cannot be there, so I plead with all those who can to attend. Bear witness and remind my parents that they are not alone,” he adds. 

Pu’s parents’ case is another example of the blatant and barbaric Christian persecution of the CCP and should serve as a call to action from Christians and freedom-loving people around the world to fight the CCP’s oppression. 

Jin’s case demonstrated that the fight will not be easy but that victory is possible. 

Learn more about Quanfu and Yu’s case and read more of Pu’s article here.