Zhang Kai

Release International petition calls on Chinese President to free Christian human rights lawyer following televised 'confession'. Observers say confession 'bogus' and made under duress. Release fears crackdown in Zhejiang province could spread across China.

Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, has launched a petition calling on China's president Xi Jinping to release the jailed Christian human rights lawyer Zhang Kai.

Release is concerned the cross demolitions in Zhejiang province and the growing crackdown against prominent Christians could spread across China.

The petition calling for Zhang's release follows a televised 'confession' in which the leading lawyer, looking haggard and appearing to read from a script, is made to admit to endangering national security and confess his 'deep remorse'.

Zhang Kai is one of more than 200 Chinese lawyers who have been harassed, held illegally and denied legal representation. Some have even been tortured. Other prominent Christian leaders who opposed the cross removals have been arrested.

'Release is concerned this campaign of intolerance in Zhejiang could gather momentum and spread across China,' says Paul Robinson, the Chief Executive of Release International.

Zhang Kai was targeted after offering legal advice to churches whose crosses are being torn down to try to curtail the growing visible Christian presence in Zhejiang province.

'There's a terrible irony here,' says Paul Robinson. 'China is rounding up its human rights lawyers for attempting to uphold the rule of law and is denying them legal rights. What message does this cynical mockery of justice give to the rest of the world? Why is this emerging superpower so insecure that it has to resort to silencing its lawyers?'

Observers who know Zhang said his televised confession looked bogus and appeared to have taken place under pressure.

China Aid President Bob Fu, a former Tiananmen Square protester, said: 'Zhang looked like he was under duress while making those scripted remarks about his confessed crimes of "endangering national security" and "gathering a mob to disturb social order". He must have been going through enormous suffering and torture in the past six months.'

Others say he had lost weight, looked exhausted and was reading from a script. One observer likened him to a concentration camp prisoner. 'There's no way those were his own words,' pastor Zhan Gang, deputy director of the Protestant Chinese House Church Alliance, told reporters.

Zhang Lei, a lawyer who has defended Zhang Kai, described the televised confession as a 'violation of the law' and an attack on 'basic human dignity'. And Release partner, China Aid, has condemned the continuing detention of Zhang Kai and his forced confession as 'outrageous.'

'Lawyers like Zhang Kai, who love their country, and simply want to use the law of the land to contest the legality of church demolitions are being treated like enemies of the state,' says Paul Robinson.

Church leaders and Christians across China have signed a statement condemning the forced confession. Zhang's is just the latest 'confession' to be broadcast in a crackdown against dissidents real and imagined which some have seen as a stark reminder of the cultural revolution.

Shortly before his arrest, Zhang Kai wrote on Chinese social media: 'I've made up my mind: the most they can do is jail me. But if I stay silent, I'll regret it my whole life.'

'And that's the real Zhang Kai,' says Paul Robinson, 'a courageous campaigner who has faced years of intimidation.

'Earlier Zhang told Release he had been tortured, put in an iron cage, and was willing to risk his freedom for the truth. He said: "This is just a voice from my heart. I want to encourage people to be against wrongdoing." Please pray for Zhang Kai. Sign the petition on change.org and stand with him.'