Pastor Zhang Shaojie Freed After 12 Years In Chinese Prison (Worthy News In-Depth)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent

BEIJING (Worthy News) – Chinese authorities have released Pastor Zhang Shaojie after he completed a 12-year prison sentence on what his supporters viewed as false charges related to his faith in Christ and his growing church.

Zhang, who led the Nanle County Christian Church in China’s central province of Henan, was able to embrace his 84-year-old mother after being freed on November 16, according to a photo obtained by Worthy News on Sunday.

“Coming out of prison during this month of Thanksgiving has been full of God’s grace,” said Pastor Zhang in published remarks.

Despite the difficulties, “I have seen the Holy Spirit’s presence every day,” the Christian stressed.

Zhang, 59, said he had been “deeply grateful for the help and support of the international community,” believing that “otherwise [he] might not be here today and might have been ‘disappeared.’”

ONGOING SURVEILLANCE AFTER RELEASE

However, Christians cautioned that the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “installed facial-recognition cameras all around his home and has not permitted visits.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Congressman Chris Smith highlighted Zhang’s plight in a 2017 letter to then–Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The legislators stated there was a report of torture against the pastor. They noted that a provincial prison official had been directed by the head of the policy-formulating State Council Research Office to place Zhang Shaojie under “strict supervision.”

The pastor was “deprived of sleep, food, and subjected to constant surveillance,” they warned at the time.

Officials detained Zhang in November 2013 following a land dispute between the pastor and local authorities, according to Christians familiar with the case.

DISPUTE OVER CHURCH LAND

The pastor said at the time that church members had legally acquired land on which they planned to build a new church.

Christian investigators said the Chinese authorities targeted him “to obtain the land and to prevent the ministry of the church from growing.”

“Pastor Zhang and a group of church members decided to go to Beijing to petition for the land, but were stopped by local officials,” recalled Pastor Bob Fu, who was involved in the Chinese house church movement before fleeing to the United States.

Fu, who now leads the advocacy group ChinaAid and closely followed the case, said that in “July 2014 the pastor was sentenced to twelve years in prison on [charges that included] ‘gathering a crowd to disrupt public order’ and ‘fraud.’”

Another charge was described as “obstruction of official business,” U.S. officials said.

Besides running his congregation, Pastor Zhang was also the local head of the China Christian Council and the local president of the government-approved Three-Self Patriotic Movement, explained Fu.

TARGETED FOR DEFENDING THE VULNERABLE

“Church members and rights lawyers said they believed the government was persecuting him not only because of the desire to seize land and limit church growth, but also because of his frequent defense of marginalized people who had their rights violated,” Fu added.

Advocacy group International Christian Concern agreed with that assessment. The “CCP has long persecuted Chinese Christians to maintain total control of the State. Chinese authorities often target pastors and churches if they gain too much traction,” the group noted.

That policy has also led to the removal of crosses from churches, the arrest of Christians, and the forced insertion of Communist principles into Christian settings, Worthy News reported.

There have been concerns within the CCP “that the citizens of China may choose allegiance to something, especially Jesus, over them,” Christians say.

At a recent U.S. Congressional hearing, Sam Brownback, former governor of Kansas, told legislators that China’s war on religious freedom poses a serious threat.

CHINA ACCUSED OF WAGING WAR ON FAITH

“China is at war with faith, and it is at war with us,” Brownback stated. “China fears religious freedom more than they fear our aircraft carriers or our nuclear weapons. If the world’s largest authoritarian state can eradicate religious freedom without consequences, it undermines the authority of America’s founding values and global leadership.”

China was included in ICC’s 2025 Global Persecution Index and was listed by the U.S. Department of State as a Country of Particular Concern in 2024.

Despite the reported crackdown, several estimates suggest there may be as many as 130 million Christians in China.

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