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Born in a Christian family, he made his way from a village in Sichuan Province, in southwestern China, to a middle-class city life. He was trained as a cook at age 16 and worked at restaurants all over China. During the pandemic, he struggled financially. To pay his mortgage and car loan, about $800 a month, he worked on an assembly line in 2020.
The trouble for Mr. Zhong, now in his early 30s, started last December when police officers stopped his car for a routine alcohol test and saw a copy of a Bible on the passenger seat. They told Mr. Zhong that he believed in an evil religion and tossed the Bible on the ground and stomped on it. The officers then took his phone and installed an app on it that turned out to have software that would track his movements.
On Christmas Day, four police officers broke into a home where Mr. Zhong and three fellow Christians were holding a prayer service. They were taken to the police station, beaten and interrogated.
Like Mr. Gao, Mr. Zhong came …More