Christian Chinese human rights lawyer Wu Shaoping, who represented persecuted religious believers and other victims of government repression before fleeing China, was released on bond July 24. He had spent nine days in federal immigration custody despite having been granted asylum in the United States.
Wu was arrested July 15 after Pennsylvania law enforcement stopped him while he was delivering packages for Amazon, as previously reported by ChinaAid News. In coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Wu was taken into custody during what authorities described as a routine traffic stop.
His detention quickly prompted appeals from human rights advocates and members of Congress.
On Sunday, Wu attended Chinese Bible Church of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and spoke with reporters following the worship service, according to Lancaster Online. He said he was still recovering from his detention at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where he struggled to sleep in a large, noisy room shared with about 60 other detainees.
ChinaAid President Bob Fu and numerous advocates urged the U.S. government to release Wu in accordance with legal procedures and not deport him to China under any circumstances. They warned that returning the longtime human rights lawyer would place him at grave risk.
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Upon his release, Wu sent a brief message to Fu and other supporters. “I am deeply grateful for everyone’s wholehearted help, which made it possible for me to regain my freedom,” he wrote.
On Monday, Wu released a lengthy letter expressing his thanks to numerous human rights organizations and naming 229 advocates who spoke out on his behalf.
“During my detention, care, solidarity, and assistance poured in from all walks of life, bringing immense warmth and strength to my family and me during this difficult time,” Wu wrote. “I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to all individuals, institutions, and organizations that provided support and help.”
Last week, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, sent a letter urging Wu’s release. Fu also told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Wu had expressed deep concern during detention about the possibility of being deported to China.
From China’s legal crackdown to freedom in America
Wu’s release has also renewed attention to the path that transformed him from a commercial attorney in Shanghai into one of China’s growing ranks of human rights lawyers — and, ultimately, into an exiled Christian.
In 2015, while practicing commercial law in Shanghai, Wu witnessed China’s sweeping “709 Crackdown,” the largest campaign against human rights lawyers in decades. Hundreds of lawyers and legal advocates were detained, many received lengthy prison sentences, and others were forced into hiding or pressured to abandon their work.
Despite the crackdown, Wu chose to join China’s human rights legal movement, representing politically sensitive cases involving house church Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, democracy advocates, and other victims of government persecution despite the increasing personal risks.
In 2019, after attending a gathering of human rights lawyers and advocates that became the target of government suppression, Wu was forced to flee China. He arrived in the United States in 2020 and formally applied for political asylum.
After settling in the United States, Wu and his family received support from several human rights organizations. During a ChinaAid family retreat in Midland, Texas, on July 9, 2022, Wu, his wife and daughter were baptized by Bob Fu and Dallas Christian counselor Scott Wood.
“He was so inspired by these persecuted Christians that he represented, and he felt a conviction to follow Christ,” Fu told a reporter last week.
Although released on bond, Wu remains in immigration proceedings and must report Wednesday to an ICE field office in York, Pennsylvania, according to documents he showed a Lancaster Online reporter. He said he remains authorized to work in the United States and plans to continue making Amazon deliveries. “I am very confident in my case,” Wu told reporters Sunday.
His letter on Monday criticized the actions of ICE without naming the agency, “I also sincerely hope that in the future, the U.S. government can establish a more refined and effective identification and protection mechanism,” Wu wrote.
He added in the concluding paragraphs: “I also hope that in a society governed by the rule of law, the law fulfills its intended role of certainty and predictability — guiding and regulating social life and governmental law enforcement behaviors, thereby avoiding the disruptions caused to society by campaign-style law enforcement. As someone who fled mainland China, I am deeply aware of the damage campaign-style law enforcement inflicts on the rule of law.”
ChinaAid expressed gratitude to the many supporters, elected officials and advocates who called for Wu’s release and welcomed the news that the exiled attorney is no longer being held in ICE custody.
This article was originally published at ChinaAid News and has been reprinted with permission.
Gao Zhensai is a special correspondent for ChinaAid News. Founded in 2002, ChinaAid is an international, Christian nonprofit human rights organization that inspires, informs, and invites people to transformative action on behalf of persecuted people of all faiths in China.
6 Responses
The Christian response to what is happening with immigration, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers has been too quiet too long. The US government under the auspices of ICE is consistently and systematically degrading the Imago DEI. Thank you for this report. ANYONE interested in learning about elevating the Imago Dei should consider attending the ReLeaven Conference 10/17/26 at First United Methodist Church see http://www.ReLeaven.org to learn more.
I fully support the removal of illegal immigrants from the US, but a man whose paperwork was in order should not have been detained. Whoever runs that field office needs to be replaced.
It is adorable that you think it was a “field office” decision, or that there is any possibility that anyone in any field office will be held accountable, let alone investigated. The sort of campaign-style law enforcement action that is being carried out by ICE these days is happening out of field offices across that nation. The legal immigrants who are its victims don’t have the same level of support that Mr. Wu had. It is almost as if the orders carried out in field offices are being issued from people in positions much higher than field offices.
Poor man. Out of the fire into the frying pan thanks to you know head head of state south of the Medicine Line
This is in my back yard… so sad and now this regime is gearing up to do this kind of thing to thousands of Christian Haitians… What’s most sad is that a majority of Lanc. Co ‘christians’ voted for this regime…and generally support Maga; it’s a red county full of God’s Own Party churches with the majority of them easily duped by the mendacity of gop/maga electoral & culture war campaigns. I’m suppose most of them didn’t Really vote for this kind of thing, but in action it feels like most are OK with some sort of ethnic cleansing (that is what ‘mass deportation, etc did actually mean…the astute, the wise, the godly, knew that from the beginning) This story has been in the local paper, but not sure how many of our ‘christian’ populace even reads it, but maybe it will come across their radar somehow, and maybe a few will wake up?
Hum, interesting! I wonder what the article would read like about the Apostle Pauls arrest if we had this same kind of platform 1,900 years ago. Paul praised the reality he was in prison and figured it was allowed by God for a his Will to be accomplished and followers of those same scriptures applaud Paul’s view of this. Do we view it the same way in today?