How are you feeling now?
It has been greater than 40 days since I actually have been freed. My health has improved quite a bit: My tinnitus was serious to start with, now it’s a lot better. Every day I am going out and jog for 20 minutes, so my body is recovering well.
How free are you right away?
I’m generally free, although two agencies, the judicial office and the police station, still monitor me every month by visiting my house. I can exit and about without being followed. However, I wouldn’t have a Chinese ID, so I’m unable to go see a physician or travel elsewhere.
What was your time in prison like?
I stayed at two prisons during my imprisonment. Because I shared the gospel with fellow prisoners at the primary prison (Menglian Detention Center in Yunnan), I used to be transferred to Kunming Prison in 2019. To punish me, I used to be now not allowed to talk with other inmates.
Image: Courtesy of China Aid / Edits by CT
Pastor John Cao
In China, prisoners have to undergo laogai, which implies “reform through labor.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards labor as noble and imposes long hours of labor on prisoners. The purpose of laogai is to remodel a foul person into an excellent person.
At Menglian Detention Center, we sewed pants and clothing, for which we received next to nothing. At Kunming Prison, I assembled paper bags for tea leaves, in addition to gift and fruit bags, without getting paid.
While I used to be imprisoned, I didn’t get sun exposure—I probably only saw sunlight about 10 times a yr. Without sunlight and the vitamin D it produces, my body became weak. I used to be not allowed to go outside or to exercise. I couldn’t even exercise in my room.
Every day from 7 to 7:30 a.m., we had to look at a state-owned news program. I had zero interest within the news, because it is dogmatic and meaningless to me. I normally bowed my head to hope because the news played within the background. I did learn in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and other major outside news to some extent.
All of us needed to learn dozens of “red songs” [praising the CCP] to “inherit red genes and prepared ourselves to liberate all human beings.”
Since I couldn’t speak to anyone once I was within the Kunming prison, I’d pray and sing praise songs. I’d also write some poems of praise. I used to be placed under surveillance by 4 fellow inmates, and I couldn’t step out of my room. Although they might freely interact with inmates from other cells, I couldn’t speak to any of them. Similarly, prisoners wouldn’t approach me once they saw the 4 guards standing beside me.
Are there particular Bible verses that encouraged you?
I didn’t have a Bible while in prison. Although each my mother and my lawyer brought Bibles to my prison, the correctional staff refused at hand them over to me. My mother would write down Bible verses in her letters to me. Yet the police checked our correspondence: If faith was mentioned in my letters, they might not be delivered.
Both prisons had small libraries with a whole bunch of books. I’d seek for Leo Tolstoy’s books, since there are some Bible verses in his books. When I discovered them, I’d be very, very completely satisfied and replica the verses in my notebook. In the 4 years I used to be there, I copied dozens of verses.
I especially liked the verses that remember believers who’re suffering in prison. In Psalm 137:1–3 it says,
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept,
after we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
They said, ‘Sing us certainly one of the songs of Zion!’
These verses about Israel and the Jewish people’s grief during their Babylonian exile spoke to me.
Have you ever doubted your faith or wondered why you needed to undergo this trial?
I actually have never wondered. Once I returned to China to spread the gospel, I knew that in the end I can be persecuted for my faith. Jesus said we are going to undergo what he had experienced. For whosoever will pursue his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for the Lord’s sake shall find it.
Also, I actually have been to each province in China, where I visited many Christians who were persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned. I’ve heard their testimony. So when the day got here, I had an important peace in my heart. I knew I’d pay a price for my faith, so I felt very joyful.
Your mother went to great lengths to go to you. What is behind her strength and courage?
My mother may appear to be an abnormal Christian, but she is a really remarkable Christian. It took her two full days to achieve the jail where I used to be held in Menglian, and oftentimes she couldn’t even see me. On the times after we were in a position to meet, we needed to talk on the phone through a glass window. Our conversations were monitored.
One time, my mother mentioned that a fellow believer passed on his greeting and was praying for me. Before she even finished her sentence, the keyword praying triggered the police to chop off the conversation and end our meeting. For her to ride the train for therefore many hours to merely have a three-minute conversation with me caused her to burst into tears.
According to China’s prison law, prisoners have the appropriate to put in writing letters to their family members, but I could only write letters to my mother. That cut off my contact with the surface world, as I could only communicate through her.
I wrote a poem to pay tribute to my mother. I speak about how during World War II, many moms sent their sons to the frontline to fight. One line goes, Mothers sent off their sons up to now, side by side my mother stands with me now. I regard my mother as my comrade, who fights besides me. She is mightier than the WWII moms.
Many people, from local Christians to US government officials, have called on your release and prayed for you. What would you prefer to say to them?
I’m extremely grateful for all of the brothers and sisters around the globe who prayed and advocated for me. I also know that they tried through many channels to persuade the Chinese government to correct this error and release me.
I’m very thankful for the various US lawmakers and officials who put in a number of effort to free me. Whether abnormal citizen or official, they spoke out for me out of a way of justice.
Many Chinese Christians also got here to the doorway of my prison to hope for me. This could get them arrested, in order that they took great risks. The police on the prison knew that if there have been people standing on the gate, they might be praying for me. An officer once secretly notified me that there have been individuals who kneeled on the gate to hope for my freedom.
When you were released, you returned to a really different China with even less freedom for Christians, a worsening economy, and a crackdown on civil society. How are you coping?
Initially, once I learned about my seven-year sentence, I couldn’t wrap my head across the incontrovertible fact that they might persecute me, regardless that the things I did in northern Myanmar were useful to China.
Once I used to be released, I noticed that many pastors had been arrested. I got here to appreciate that this can be a crackdown against the home churches in China as a complete, and I just happened to be among the many first few individuals.
Chinese Christians will not be anti-government, they obey the structure. An abnormal citizen doesn’t possess a gun—how can he incite subversion of state power? For the federal government to crack down on Christians, it’s an act of self-harm and self-damage. Not only do the Christians get hurt but the federal government also hurts its fame and is discredited.
What are your plans going forward?
First, I would really like to get a Chinese ID so I can reunite with my family within the US. Without my ID, I cannot move freely to other places, purchase a mobile phone, register for accounts online, or see a physician.
It shouldn’t be only in regards to the reunion or in regards to the inconvenience. It’s also an expression of me being a Chinese citizen. I highly value my citizen’s rights, so for them to be deprived, it is extremely unfair and unjust. Christians experience a number of similar treatment like this of their every day lives.
Other than that, my life has been good. Changsha has been good. I’m in a position to take part in in-person and online church services. I actually have been contacted and invited by house churches to pastor them, but I actually have not yet decided, since house churches are still considered illegal in China. As at all times, my predominant purpose is to share the gospel.
