A member of the Shouters’ movement from Henan Province who had been in exile for more than 20 years was captured by the Chinese authorities and later received a lengthy prison sentence.
He Jie (pseudonym) from Yongcheng city, Henan Province, had been on the run after being arrested multiple times by the CCP. On January 20, 2016, a local official told He Jie to go the police station to pick up his reissued household registration booklet. He was immediately arrested upon arrival to the station. He Jie was later sentenced to four years in prison for “using a xie jiao (heterodox teachings) organization to undermine law enforcement.”
According to sources, in 1991, He Jie was arrested by the National Security Brigade of Yongcheng while attending a religious gathering and was sent to a “reform through labor” camp, where he was forced to carry rocks for four months. In 1994, He Jie was arrested again for believing in God and was sentenced to one and a half years. After He Jie was released from prison, the police frequently harassed, intimidated, and closely monitored him. To escape the CCP’s persecution, He Jie and his family fled home.
The Shouters, named for their practice of calling the name of the Lord out loud, is a label used by the Chinese regime to designate a large variety of communities, including both the Christian religious movement known in the West as the Local Church and groups that are not part of it. During the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party branded the movement as a “counterrevolutionary organization” and later listed it on a national register of xie jiao organizations, misleadingly translated as “cults.” Under Article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Code, being associated with such organizations automatically leads to arrest, detention or imprisonment.
Source: BITTER WINTER / Li Pei
