I started writing blogs in 2014, after watching the news about a Chinese pastor in Henan Province who was arrested. The pastor was persecuted by the local government because his church was growing too fast and attracting way too many believers. Later, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defending the property of his church. My 40 plus years of life in China “told” me that this pastor would be slandered by the Chinese government as a “thug” or “criminal” and the government would hide the truth from people. His case needed to be known by the world!
As a Christian, I felt very strongly the mission God gives all His children – speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31: 8). So, I wrote my first article to criticize the Chinese government for jailing Pastor Zhang Shaojie and persecuting Chinese Christians; it was published on the website of China Aid, an organization that helps Chinese Christians and supports Chinese human rights activists in the United States. Bob Fu, the head of China Aid, has long been blacklisted by the Chinese government.
I first decided to devote my blog to the Lord, to share my testimony about how I became a Christian and how God saved “a wretch like me.” I named my blog “Ruth’s Journey;” I came to the United States, got baptized and fell in love with the great American people. “Your people shall be my people and your God my God,” as Ruth said (Ruth 1:16). I shared the story of Ms. Noris, my first American professor, who secretly took us to church in 1985, and that was the first time I heard the name of Jesus and about celebrating Christmas. I wrote the story about how I wanted to have a copy of the Bible but the government-run Christian office refused to give me a copy, and how later a mysterious man in a cloak and dagger fashion delivered a book to me. The cover of the book was dark green; it was titled “International Study,” but inside, I found the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Ruth’s Journey is not only a collection of blogs that records my journey to become a Christian, but is also a record of how I conquered my fears and began speaking up and advocating for human rights in China.
The year 2014 was filled with the tears of Chinese Christians – the government ordered the demolition of over 300 churches and burned the crosses removed from the top of church buildings. I cried when I saw the crosses being burned. I wrote articles to share the story of a pastor’s wife who was buried alive when the couple stood in front of their church, trying to stop the government’s bulldozers. I also shared my personal experience on abortion, which is forced and never a choice in China.
In 2015, reports kept surfacing about how Chinese lawyers risked their career and even their lives to defend the churches that had lost their properties. On July 9, 2015, over 200 lawyers were arrested. In 2016, more human rights activists were forced to “disappear” – detained in unknown places, such as hotels and mental hospitals. I began to pay attention to these cases and wrote about those brave human rights activists, such as the Nobel Prize winner Mr. Liu Xiaobo, or the persecuted woman human rights lawyer Wang Yu, who fought for the poor, the weak, and broke her heart seeing her son harassed by the government. They spoke up courageously and defended not only their rights, but also my rights and the rights of all Chinese.
A Free China! That is the dream of every freedom-loving Chinese, whether a Christian, a Buddhist, a Muslim or simply a non-believer. A Free China where every citizen will have the sacred right to worship in the way they see fit; a Free China, where every citizen will have the inalienable right to think and speak their minds without fear of government reprisal. I realized that my blog should have a new, more comprehensive mission, that is, to join those brave human rights activists and make our voices louder.
Our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion are God-given and therefore unalienable. As a Christian, I feel it is my duty and responsibility to defend those God-given rights.
The new name of my blog -which in fact I’ve been using for some time now- is Free China but, in essence, Ruth’s Journey, my journey, continues.