Advocacy Group Takes up Case of Chinese Christian Sentenced to 7 Years

ICC Note: Christian dissident Zhu Yufu has long faced persecution for advocating on behalf of democratic change in China. Now at least one advocacy group has taken his case to Capitol Hill in an effort to rescue Zhu Yufu from his 7 year prison sentence for writing a poem calling for greater freedoms in China. 
4/14/2013 China (ChinaAid) – Zhu Yufu, a Christian dissident in his 60s, has been sentenced again by the Chinese Communist government, this time because he posted a poem he’d written called “It’s Time” during the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East. The international community immediately responded to the ridiculously heavy sentence of seven years’ imprisonment (and three-year deprivation of political rights) and expressed concern about worsening human rights situation in China. In hopes of bringing about Zhu’s early release, the Texas-based Christian human rights group China Aid Association and Zhu’s family, who had made a special trip to the United States from China, were in Washington, D.C. last week to meet with key U.S. government officials and Congressional leaders.
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Brother Zhu Yufu is a devout Christian who has always had a passion for coming to the aid of his country, willing to strive for freedom and democracy in China at the expense of his own freedom and life. This dates back to as early as 1978, when Zhu Yufu was one of the founders of the Democracy Wall movement in Hangzhou and a freedom magazine. In 1998, to challenge the Chinese Communists’ totalitarian one-party rule, he participated in the founding of the China Democracy Party, for which he paid the price of a seven-year prison term. After serving his time, he continued engaging in rights defense activities and the promotion of democracy. Again, he was wrongfully sentenced, as was his son, to two years and one year in prison, respectively. Even when not serving prison time, this famous Chinese prisoner of conscience was usually under the long-term government surveillance or being arbitrarily detained or “disappeared.” His family members have also been implicated in his troubles. In 2011, after he was sentenced for the third time, he was sent to serve his sentence in No.4 Prison in Zhejiang Province. In the prison, this elderly man in his 60s has been brutally persecuted in various ways. His many sicknesses are quickly worsening and his very life is at stake, but prison authorities refuse to give him any treatment. Zhu Yufu’s fifth sister, Zhu Xiaoyan, and his sixth brother, Zhu Qiaofu, have managed to come to United States, while his fourth sister has come from Japan and they are devoting all their time in seeking help to save their brother from people of various circles.
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