Zhang Xiaoyue, female, born in 1964 and lived in Sankou Town of Huangshan City’s Huangshan District in Anhui Province, China. She started believing in the Lord Jesus in 1996 and joined The Church of Almighty God (CAG) in 1997. On September 2, 2014, Zhang Xiaoyue was arrested by the police of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because of her belief in Almighty God. She was sentenced to three years in prison and was killed while serving time at the age of 50. Zhang’s story of persecution to death is below.
On September 2, 2014 around 5 a.m., the police from Huangshan District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province carried out a concentrated operation resulting in the arrest of ve local Christians from The Church of Almighty God. Zhang Xiaoyue was one of them.
At about 8 a.m. that morning, Zhang Xiaoyue’s mother went to her home but saw no sign of her. Her mother later received a phone call notifying that Li Ru (alias,female), a Christian from the same church, had been arrested because of her belief in Almighty God and the police had confiscated a lot of spiritual books found in her house. After hearing this, she rushed to her daughter’s house to look for her again and discovered that all the spiritual books Zhang Xiaoyue usually read were nowhere to be found. She gured that her daughter had also been arrested by the police.
Three or four days later Yu Zhe, the village cadre, brought two police officers to Zhang Xiaoyue’s mother’s home and said to her, “Your daughter has been arrested because of her belief in Almighty God and is being held in a detention center. Take her some clothing.” Hearing this, her mother became extremely anxious and angrily asked them, “My daughter’s faith doesn’t break any laws. Why did you arrest her? She has cerebral atrophy. By arresting her, aren’t you putting her on a path to death?” But the police were completely lacking in compassion and rushed towards her, yelling, “The Almighty God your daughter believes in is forbidden in China. Her belief is against the law, and she’s even preaching the gospel all over the place. We don’t care whether she has any kind of disease or not. Everyone who believes in Almighty God must be arrested!” Her mother then got some clothing to bring to her but was not allowed to see her.
A month later Yu Zhe, the village cadre, once again asked Zhang Xiaoyue’s mother to bring her some winter clothing; she got some clothing and took a taxi to the Huangshan District Public Security Bureau. The police told her that Zhang Xiaoyue had been given a 3-year sentence for “using a cult organization to undermine the enforcement of the law.” However, they only gave her the arrest warrant, not the verdict. Zhang Xiaoyue was later transferred to the Changfeng County Women’s Prison, Anhui Province to serve her sentence.
At 3 a.m. one day in December of 2015, Zhang Xiaoyue’s elder brother received a phone call from the prison saying that she had a serious, life-threatening illness, asking him to take her back home. Zhang’s brother and husband rushed over to the prison and the staff there told them that Zhang Xiaoyue had already died. Zhang’s family made a request to view the remains, and the guards took them into a room. They allowed the family to see her head, but no part of her body. He could just see that she had become a bag of bones and her lips didn’t even cover her teeth. When her family asked the prison guards about the cause of death, they procured a surveillance video. The family learned from the video that the police had tried to force her to give up her faith and had interrogated her nonstop, also trying to force her to sign documents denying God. She refused and went on a hunger strike to protest. She wasn’t in good health in the rst place and couldn’t withstand hunger, because she always got a panic attack if she was hungry. In the end, her medical condition and her hunger brought about her death. After her family identi ed her remains, the prison guards immediately removed her body for cremation. Her family later sent her ashes to their hometown for burial.
