By Ningmeng —
Pastor John Cao, a native of Hunan who was imprisoned for seven years, shared bittersweet news on social media yesterday (July 27). He joyfully announced that his son, Cao Qianxing, and his wife, Jenny, welcomed a baby boy on July 18 in the United States, officially making him a grandfather. Pastor Cao expressed profound gratitude to God for this blessing upon his family.
However, he also revealed that despite being released from prison a year and seven months ago, the Chinese government has still refused to allow him to renew his passport, preventing him from traveling to the U.S. to be with his wife, children, and newborn grandson to share their joy together, to which he expressed profound sadness over.
Pastor Cao pointed out that he continues to live without fundamental civil freedoms since his release. His Chinese passport expired while he was serving his prison sentence, and it has not been renewed.
“I served seven years in prison, and I have been free for a year and seven months, but I still cannot go to the United States. I have applied for a passport twice, both times rejected, and I even hired a lawyer. However, my application has still not been approved till today,” he said. Having been separated from his wife and children for years, Cao wryly remarked that he feels as though he has merely left a “small prison” only to enter a “large prison.”
Pastor Cao continued: “People like me are called ‘exit-banned.’ I know individuals who have been subjected to exit bans for 20 years. If I can never leave for the rest of my life, I will still have no regrets and remain joyful each day. Being able to return to China to serve the Lord is God’s greatest blessing for me. Everyone, please share in my joy and continue to pray for me.”
Pastor John Cao, 66, is from Changsha, Hunan. In his early years, he studied theology in the United States, where he married an American Christian woman, and they have two sons together. He holds U.S. permanent resident status. He returned to China to serve as a missionary in obedience to God’s calling, focusing on impoverished areas along the China-Myanmar border. There, he established schools, providing textbooks, pencils, and Bibles to local children, benefiting over 2,000 students.
In March 2017, while returning to Yunnan, China, from Myanmar via a local waterway route commonly used by border residents, Pastor Cao was intercepted by Chinese border police. A year later, a local Yunnan court sentenced him to seven years in prison on charges of “organizing illegal border crossings,” a charge typically associated with human trafficking. Currently, other Christians have also been imprisoned under similar charges. — ChinaAid
