NEW YORK—In 2008, Zhang Peng was being held in solitary confinement in a small concrete cell at Wuling Prison in Hunan Province because the faith he practiced had been targeted for elimination by the Chinese Communist Party. His daily food rations consisted of a steamed bun and a bowl of cold cabbage soup, slid through a flap on the door. His bed was two hard, wooden boards atop a concrete block.
For years, the authorities had been attempting to coercively re-educate—commonly known as brainwash—Zhang into believing that his spiritual practice was dangerous. The last thing he expected to be shown was a video taken in the streets of New York.
