China Change

News, commentary & interviews for a free and just China. Content is a public service for all to use with attribution. Email subscription available on post page.

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Audio: A Home in God: The Story of Detained Pastor Jin Mingri and China's City Churches
0:00:09 The Zion Church Under Attack
0:04:19 1989, A World Turned Upside Down
0:10:59 Touched at a Funeral
0:18:27 The Education of a Pastor
0:26:44 The Birth of the Zion Church: In the Open, Not Underground
0:40:40 2018: Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence
0:53:53 A Church on the Move

[Ian Johnson @iandenisjohnson]

Thanks to @YaxueCao for these two excellent essay on Ezra Jin of the Zion Church in Beijing. He has been detained as part of a wide-ranging crackdown on unregistered Protestant churches, part of a new effort at enforcing govt orthodoxy.
https://t.co/bodMdqZU6X

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Part One
- Under Attack
- 1989, a World Turned Upside Down;
- Touched at a Funeral;
- The Education of a Pastor

Part Two
- The Birth of Zion Church: In the Open, Not Underground;
- 2018: ‘Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence’;
- A Church on the Move
https://t.co/g79FiBclb6

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Why has China arrested the entire pastoral team of the Zion Church? Who is Pastor Jin Mingri (Ezra Jin)? What's been going on with China's urban independent churches? Find answers to these questions and more in our in-depth profile, only on China Change. https://t.co/9GcGl7UaaR

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

"An interrogators asked me: Why do you write for Apple Daily? … Are you only doing it for money? I replied: Yes, for money. Suddenly, he was enraged, interrupted me: “No! You’re writing for your ideals!” I was stunned, and could not think of a response."
https://t.co/zgls8NpIDO

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

"It was a night of jubilation, but I felt melancholic. It was a vague hunch that our optimism was groundless —  after all, on every issue, our hopes had always been dashed on a cold and unyielding wall."
https://t.co/MjNaNE8rco

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

The Collapse of Yesterday’s World – A Chinese Millennial Journalist’s Chronicle of the ‘Reform and Opening Up’ That Never Was, by @jajia https://t.co/xj58X8u3gw
Born in the 1980s, growing up in the 1990s, and coming of age in the early 2000s, Jia Jia enjoyed a successful career as a young journalist and columnist. However, the good times proved to be a mirage.

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Ten Notable Events Over the Past Year regarding human rights lawyers in China
https://t.co/p8A6CnKpjr

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Two recent posts on China Change:
What does "socialist rule of law" look like over the last seven decades? A seasoned Chinese lawyer provides an overview. As with any authoritarian regime, there is the facade, and there is the truth behind the facade. https://t.co/VcZuRoGHuB

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

1,296 Days in Limbo: The Trial of Xie Yang and the Eleven Notices That Delayed It for Thirty-Two Months By Way of Punishment https://t.co/5S91hm1usS #谢阳律师 @709chenguiqiu

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

For the first time, eleven 709 lawyers and three 709 wives appear on camera to offer a collective account of the 709 Crackdown that began in 2015, covering arrests, smear, torture, forced confession, resistance, trials, and more. 35 minutes. https://t.co/6whkGzKeSt
The film also reveals the true scope of the 709 crackdown and explains the intrinsic logic of the Chinese Communist Party's suppression of lawyers and rights defenders against the backdrop of a rapidly changing China in recent decades.

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

709 lawyer Xie Yang (谢阳), 2nd time in prison since 2015, has been held for 1,295 days. His trial is scheduled for July 30 in Changsha. He faces charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” His ex-wife @709chenguiqiu warns the perpetrators. https://t.co/88CrkcSE6J

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

Barely a day had passed after the 10th anniversary of 709 Crackdown when lawyer Li Heping (李和平) was ensnared by traffic police in Beijing checking for drunk driving, except that Li hadn't had a drop of alcohol. An ordeal began nonetheless and lasted for 19 hours.
https://t.co/GS8Fn7hFdF

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

Event Announcement: Marking the 10th Anniversary of the 709 Crackdown in China and the 9th China Human Rights Lawyers Day on July 9, 2025
https://t.co/PGpMdwB7df @CECCgov @jeromeacohen @L4L_INT @TheLawSociety @LRWCanada @RightsPractice @MFlaherty17 @CarlMinzner @StuartR92034479

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

The Global Chinese Anaconda by Dr. Rana Siu Inboden
https://t.co/HxHCYskRns How the Chinese government is using many of its domestic control tactics abroad.

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

We close the year 2024 with Dr. Xu Zhiyong's essay "A Constitutional Blueprint for China" https://t.co/BUrm7shbIT
Xu Zhiyong’s Note in 2019: This is a study of China’s future constitutional system. The section on citizens’ fundamental rights is based on the 2004 recommendations of many constitutional scholars on how to amend the constitution. The section on the design of other institutions is the result of a five-month series of biweekly discussions by dozens of constitutional scholars in 2011.

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

Goodbye, Communism by @zhiyongxu https://t.co/piZljlLKlV The 11th essay of A Beautiful China by Xu Zhiyong #许志永, serving a 14-year sentence for "subversion of state power" in China. Audio available.

[Yaxue Cao @YaxueCao]

The Unavoidable Road to Freedom: My First Prison Term
by @zhiyongxu https://t.co/TXHlXXqRiv #公盟 #Gongmeng, one of the civil society groups sprung up in the early 2000s that pioneered the rights defense movement, survived for about 4 years before being outlawed, and that was during the "good time" of China's reform era.

[China Change @ChinaChange_org]

#许志永 Last winter, from the detention center, @zhiyongxu wrote to China Change to express his wish that A Beautiful China, his essays detailing his journey and vision, be translated & published on this website. Access to the translation in progress. https://t.co/cu5n2qJNZg