Tiananmen freedom fighter’s spiritual journey

SAN DIEGO — For those who think China is a society completely void
of God — or at least the God with whom most of the Western Hemisphere
is familiar — consider the story of Boli Zhang, a man who, despite
politics, persecution and personal affliction, is an inspiration to
citizens of all nations.

Think back to a moment frozen in time, a mere 10 years ago. Who can
forget the scenes in Tiananmen Square June 3 and 4, 1989, when the
People’s Liberation Army brutally crushed pro-democracy supporters,
killing hundreds, injuring 10,000, and arresting a multitude of students
and workers?

Afterward, the Chinese government conducted summary trials and
executions, banned the foreign media and strictly controlled its
domestic press. Although Beijing had quelled similar protests since the
mid-1980s, the extremely violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square
protest caused widespread international condemnation of the Chinese
government.

One extraordinary story of the protest is that of Boli Zhang, one of
the leaders of the protest, who recently attended the China ’99
conference in San Diego.

“I was a student at Beijing University and I was one of the main
leaders among the Tiananmen Square protesters,” said Zhang, who was also
president of the Tiananmen Square Democracy University and believes he
had been targeted by the Chinese government for his involvement there
with other professors.

For 54 days of protests, Zhang and his fellow democracy seekers lived
off donations from not only the local citizenry, but a few government
departments, as well. His reason for being there is reminiscent of
countless other freedom fighters in places like Colonial America,
Poland, Hungary and, more recently, the former Soviet Union.

“I believed that China needed democracy,” said Zhang. “I found that
China is open to science, but closed to democracy.”

He recalled the terrible situation that he and the other leaders
faced as a tank rolled into the square and a sole student stood in front
of it, daring the driver to run over him.

“Angry students went to attack the tank, but it just kept running.”

Fearing for their lives, the students eventually ended the protest,
while Zhang, trying to keep a cool head lest his anger affect his
decisions, fled to his native section of northeastern China. It wasn’t
long before he was put on the government’s “Most Wanted” list and a huge
manhunt was organized for him.

The next two years Zhang lived in exile, wandering as a sickly
fugitive, finally taken in by a peasant family. The woman of the house
was a devout Christian who walked many miles each Sunday to worship at
her church. She restored Zhang’s health by slaughtering for him daily a
fresh chicken — quite a sacrifice for an impoverished family.

One day he said to her, “Biaojie (sister), you are so kind to me. How
can I repay you?”

She replied, “I cannot read. Read to me a passage from the Bible
every day.”

She only had a handwritten copy of the Gospel of John, and soon the
protester-turned-fugitive was soaking in the New Testament book.

“My view of Christianity before I met this lady was that it was
nothing but spiritual opium,” said Zhang. “I knew that there was
something attractive about Christianity, because so many were willing to
give up their lives for that. But I didn’t think I would.”

It was December 25, 1989, on a bitterly cold winter night that Boli
Zhang walked across the frozen Heilongjiang River, and reached Siberia.
Everywhere there was snow, wind, and bitter cold: 40 below zero
(Celsius).

As he was lost in the deep snow, with not a soul around, and with the
howling wind as his only company, he had reached the point of despair.
He remembered Biaojie’s parting words: “When you face any kind of
difficulty, pray to Jesus Christ. He will save you.” Thus, he began to
pray, and then fell asleep on a heap of hay, knowing that he would
freeze to death in this wilderness. But, the next day, he was
miraculously rescued by local farmers.

Despite the brush with death, the farmers turned the passport-less
Zhang over to the Russian army, under whose supervision he served prison
time to which he refers as a “good time.” Not only were the soldiers
benevolent, they allowed him to worship — even pray for them.

From Russia, Zhang was allowed to return back to China, where he
lived for three years in seclusion on a mountain, making the most of his
hunting, fishing, and farming skills.

By 1995, Zhang escaped to Hong Kong, where he received political
asylum, and subsequently arrived in Princeton, New Jersey, where he knew
friends. His first night in America, he went to a Chinese church and
heard the Gospel being preached in his native tongue. That was, he says,
the moment he realized that he had to surrender his life to Christ, even
though Christ was to take a temporary back seat to a college education.

Within two years, Zhang became a visiting scholar and researcher at
Princeton University’s East Asia department. He says he kept sensing a
calling from God, which put him at odds with his strong desire to study
— and his studies were winning.

“I thought that whatever I owed God, I would pay Him back,” he said.
“But now I didn’t think [it was] the time for me to give up everything
for Him.”

However, it wasn’t long until Zhang faced another setback, news that
everyone dreads — cancer. In his case, it was liver cancer. He became
angry with God, feeling the cancer was some sort of punishment.
Suddenly, chemotherapy sessions replaced churchgoing, and doctors told
Zhang and his new wife he didn’t have much time to live.

But just before he left for treatment in Taiwan, Zhang realized he
could no longer fight against God. His Christian brethren had besought
God to use him for a purpose, and Zhang bargained with God while in
flight.

“So, I prayed on the airplane, ‘God, if you heal me and give me good
health, I’ll dedicate myself to you!'”

In Taiwan, the doctors found that all of Zhang’s cancer cells had
remarkably disappeared, although he retained some 50 pounds of water,
not to mention suffering kidney failure.

“My leg was so huge that I couldn’t put my pants on … I realized
that I had to come before God in humbleness … whether I would be
healed or not,” said Zhang.

Returning to the U.S. and still suffering some health problems, Zhang
decided to dedicate himself completely to God. He thought about what
Jesus said in Matthew 16:26 — “What good will it be if a man gains the
whole world and loses his own soul?” — and applied it to his life by
ceasing to take his prescribed medication. Doctors warned that he should
take the pills for the rest of his life, but Zhang believed God was a
better healer than pills.

It wasn’t until a freezing December night in 1996, at a Chinese
Christian rally in Chicago that Boli Zhang made a public proclamation of
his devotion to God and was baptized. Upon emerging from the icy waters,
he was greeted by warm, spontaneous applause and shouts of
congratulations.

Four years later, Zhang is now the assistant pastor of a Chinese
church in Glendale, Calif., where his evangelistic crusades, seminary
courses and theology papers keep him busy around the clock in the
service of God.

“I usually don’t go to bed before 12 (midnight) and I get up at 6
a.m. to have devotions. Thank God my health is OK.”

Instead of deeming it a curse to have been born in China, where God
does not exist — at least not according to the communist government
there — Zhang now feels it was a blessing for him, and says the
homeland for which he still cares deeply needs the love of Jesus.

“The economic situation in China is getting better and better, but
people are becoming more lost,” said Zhang. “I think the biggest need in
China is to turn the hatred into love. The whole society must learn to
forgive.”

His message is not only for the citizens of China, but for those in
power as well.

“Those who persecuted the others also need to confess and repent. I
believe that only the love of Jesus Christ can make that happen. In
5,000 years of Chinese history, nobody has ever done that. … I see it
now today in China ’99. I see we can do it. But it must start with us.”

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Dan Wooding is an internationally acclaimed journalist who operates
Assist Communications.