09/06/2020 China (International Christian Concern) – According to the wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Qin Yongpei, Deng Xiaowun, her imprisoned Christian husband was denied access to Bible and a book on biblical stories by his detention center.
While Nanning First Detention Center in Guangxi province first promised Deng on September 1 that she can pass on the Bible and the Christian book to Qin, in the afternoon it changed its mind and notified Qin’s lawyer its decision. The reason being Qin might “spread the gospel in prison.” In the end, Qin will instead receive two other classic Chinese divination text as an alternative.
Deng said in her Twitter account, “The director of detention center said Qin can only read China’s own classic texts, […] not the Western type such as the Bible. […] But Qin only wants to read the Bible!”
The founder and director of the Guangxi Baijuming Law Firm was detained in October 2019 in apparent retaliation for criticizing on social media the corruption of high-level Chinese officials. He was formally arrested under the charge of “subversion of state power” last December. Qin has also long advocated for fellow persecuted lawyers and religious minorities such as the Falun Gong practitioners.
