{"id":49812,"date":"2024-04-23T14:00:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T05:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=49812"},"modified":"2024-04-23T11:07:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T02:07:05","slug":"vomk-report-299","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2024\/04\/23\/vomk-report-299\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA: CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE OWNER RELEASED FROM PRISON TWO YEARS EARLY"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49804″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”A Chinese Christian bookstore owner sentenced to seven years in prison for alleged illegal business operations has been released from prison more than two years early, according to persecution ministry Voice of the Martyrs Korea. Chen Yu, the former owner and operator of \u201cXiaomai Bookstore\u201d in Linhai City in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province was released from the province\u2019s Jinhua Prison on April 4. According to Voice of the Martyrs Korea, he was met by more than a dozen Christians from across China, including his mother, who had protested publicly that the sentence against her son was too harsh. After his release, Chen Yu returned to his home in Linhai. He is not permitted to leave the city during the time of his parole. ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Officials arrested Chen Yu in September of 2019, claiming he had sold more than 20,000 Christian books worth a reported 12,820,000 yuan (approx. 2.4 billion KRW) to over 10,000 customers. A year later he was sentenced to 7 years in prison and fined 200,000 yuan (approx. 37,400,000 KRW) for alleged illegal business operations. Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley says that almost 13,000 books in the store\u2019s inventory were reportedly seized and destroyed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChen Yu\u2019s arrest led to the launch of a nationwide hunt for the book buyers using receipts confiscated from the store,\u201d says Representative Foley. She says that more than 10,000 buyers were reportedly contacted, including many in their homes. \u201cThe key question in the investigation was whether buyers had bought the book \u2018Transformation of the Gospel\u2019 by Pastor Wang Yi from Early Rain Covenant Church,\u201d says Representative Foley. In December 2019, Pastor Wang was sentenced to 9 years in prison for alleged subversion of state power and illegal business operations. Representative Foley says those with knowledge of the investigation say authorities confiscated all copies of Wang Yi\u2019s book from buyers.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Chen Yu<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s alleged crimes involved selling translations of foreign Christian books to his customers, as well as selling Pastor Wang Yi<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s book,<\/span>\u201d<\/span> says <\/span>Representative<\/span> Foley<\/span>.<\/span> \u201c<\/span>His case is part of a growing trend by Chinese communist authorities to criminalize the sale of all Christian literature which is not part of the government<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s <\/span>\u2018<\/span>Sinicization<\/span>\u2019<\/span> movement which requires churches to praise and promote communism.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49811″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Representative Foley said that as Chen Yu appealed his sentence in court, his mother, Zheng Jinmei, wrote an article protesting the severity of her son\u2019s sentence. \u201cHer article, \u2018Selling Books versus Prostitution\u2019, complained that courts had sentenced Christian booksellers jail terms 170 times harsher than the jail sentences given to prostitutes,\u201d says Representative Foley.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Chen Yu lost two legal appeals, Representative Foley says the family believes the Lord was at work through the process.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>While <\/span>Chen Yu was <\/span>serving his sentence, <\/span>his <\/span>father <\/span>was <\/span>suffer<\/span>ing<\/span> from cancer,<\/span>\u201d<\/span> says Representative Foley. <\/span>\u201c<\/span>But when Chen Yu<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s father saw the care and concern for Chen Yu and his family from other Christians, he <\/span>became a Christian himself, and <\/span>his <\/span>cancer was later cured.<\/span>\u201d<\/span> She says that <\/span>Chen Yu and his mother, Zheng Jinmei, pray<\/span>ed daily at <\/span>5 p.m.<\/span> from both sides of the <\/span>prison<\/span> walls<\/span>\u2014<\/span>Chen Yu inside and his <\/span>mother<\/span> outside<\/span>\u2014<\/span>and experienced a strengthened faith <\/span>in Christ<\/span> as a result<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49809″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Chen Yu and his parents celebrate his release outside Jinhua Prison on April 4.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230f0f0f|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Representative Foley says the reason for Chen Yu\u2019s early release from prison is unclear, but she believes the Lord heard the prayers of Christians around the world and moved authorities to release him. She says she hopes Christians will now focus their prayers on Early Rain Church Pastor Wang Yi, who is in his fifth year of imprisonment with little updated information available about his condition.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Individuals interested in learning more about Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u2019s partnership with Chinese unregistered churches can visit <\/span>www.vomkorea.com\/en\/china<\/span><\/span><\/a>. \u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”49804″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”A Chinese Christian bookstore owner sentenced to seven years in prison for alleged illegal business operations has been released from prison more than two years early, according …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":49806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[235,869,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-column","category-china-special","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49812"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49816,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812\/revisions\/49816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}