Zhang Yanling, female, born on July 21, 1968, of Sishui County, Jining City in Shandong Province, is a Christian of The Church of Almighty God. Zhang Yanling is a loyal and honest person. Her husband died at a young age, so Zhang and her son have had to depend on each other for their continued survival. In June of 2018, the CCP arrested Zhang’s mother and father in their seventies for their role as the custodians of the Church’s books, and later detained and sentenced them. Several days later, after failing to arrest Zhang Yanling, the CCP arrested Zhang’s son, sister-in-law, and 80 plus years old mother-in-law. On September 4, 2019, Sishui County Public Security Bureau publicly issued notice of a cash reward of 10,000 RMB (about 1400 USD) for the arrest of Zhang Yanling. Zhang is currently still in forced exile.
On June 22, 2018, at around 10 a.m., over 10 police from Jihe Subdistrict Office of Sishui County charged into the home of the 70 plus years old parents of Zhang Yanling and proceeded to conduct a brazen search of the house, eventually seizing 771 faith-related books, 1991 faith-related pamphlets, 1444 CDs, and other items that the parents kept for the church, before forcibly apprehending Zhang’s parents and detaining them at the local police station.
On June 25, officers from the local police station charged into the home of Zhang Yanling’s sister-in-law and after failing to arrest Zhang Yanling herself, the policemen proceeded to arrest and detain Zhang’s son (not a Christian) and her sister-in-law.
On July 8 at around 10 a.m., the police charged into the home of Zhang Yanling’s 80 plus years old mother-in-law hoping to find and arrest Zhang, and then proceeded to brazenly search through the house without producing any identification, seizing 12 faith-related books and other items in the process. The police pressured Zhang’s mother-in-law to divulge information about the church and viciously questioned her, saying, “Your daughter-in-law is an important leader in The Church of Almighty God, where is she hiding?” When she refused to respond, the police then threatened her, saying, “If you don’t tell us where Zhang Yanling is hiding, we’ll not release your daughter and grandson!” The police then forced Zhang’s mother-in-law to come with them to the local police station to verify her identity. She was only temporarily released after the police forcibly cut her finger and made her leave a fingerprint with the blood from her finger.
After being illegally imprisoned for 35 days, Zhang Yanling’s son was released on bail pending trial for one year. Zhang’s sister-in-law was sentenced to one year in prison, Zhang’s mother was sentenced to four years in prison and her father is still being detained.
Because the CCP continues to hunt for Zhang Yanling, she has been forced to remain in exile.
On September 4, 2019, Sishui County Public Security Bureau publicly announced online that they had put out a 5,000 to 10,000 RMB reward for information leading to Zhang’s arrest. They also advertised on Qilu news channel as well as the Qilu Evening News and set up a WeChat group for reporting information. The aim of all of this was to incite the public to report any sightings of Zhang Yanling to the police.
Zhang Yanling is currently still in hiding. Because she is deathly afraid of being spotted and reported, she doesn’t dare visit her mother in prison and is unable to go home and help take care of her mother-in-law, much less is she able to reunite with her son. This has all caused her immense suffering and hardship. She said, “The CCP has wantonly arrested and persecuted my family, making it impossible for me to reunite with my loved ones and return to my home. Now they’ve put out a reward for information leading to my arrest and advertised it on TV and in the newspapers; they’re cutting off all my means of subsistence!”
