Earlier this year Chinese pastor John Cao was released after serving a seven-year sentence, but his freedom of movement is still restricted. He recently spoke about both his time behind bars and his current circumstances.
Chinese-born John, who had lived with his family for a number of years in the US, had been running schools for needy children in the northern part of Myanmar. “People had no food or clothes. Basically, they were naked. I brought clothes, food, medicine into this place,” he said. He made no attempt to hide the fact that he was crossing the border from China into Myanmar to resource these schools. After his arrest in March 2017, his family claimed that Chinese officials were aware of his work and even helped him cross the border on occasion.
However, he was arrested and charged with “organising illegal border crossings”. The following year he was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment and fined. A subsequent appeal was postponed seven times before the sentence was upheld. “We set up schools and actually taught them Chinese – which is also good for the Chinese government. So, I often asked, ‘What’s wrong? Why put me in jail for seven years?’ But suddenly I understood. That was the beginning of a movement by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Chinese Christians – mainly those in the underground house churches. That is really the point.”
John spent the first two-and-a-half years in a detention centre. Food was sparse and he quickly lost weight. Then, in 2019, he was transferred to a prison. He found himself in a cell with ten people sleeping together on a single, large bed. “The good thing was I was able to share Jesus Christ with the people on my left and on my right. So, the hearts of the two guys were opened by the Spirit to believe in Jesus Christ. Both of them accepted Him as their Lord.” Shortly after this, John managed to collect water in a bucket, during heavy rain, and poured it over them to baptise them. “Then the officers found out and moved me to another room. So I started over again!”
During the next four years, John was severely restricted in terms of letters he could receive from family and friends. Letters containing Bible verses were confiscated by the authorities, phone calls were listened to, and visits were cut short at the mention of prayer. John was not allowed a Bible or even other books, so, he started composing poems to praise God and to express his thanks to the Lord. A selection of John’s poems were subsequently published by ChinaAid.
In March of this year, John was released from prison. However, the authorities have not given him his Chinese ID papers, which means he is not free to travel around China. “I can move around freely in my city. I don’t see anyone following me,” he said. “But I am unable to travel. I can only stay in my city. I have been removed from a small prison into a big prison that is my city.”
Although he has lived in the US John has retained his Chinese citizenship. “With Chinese citizenship, I am able to come into China without being stopped. I love America just as much as I love China. I love China because I want to share Jesus Christ with Chinese people!”
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