Pastor in Exile

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Zhang Boli, Tiananmen dissident turned author and Christian pastor, spoke with TIME about his harrowing flight from China:

TIME: Why did you write this book?
Zhang: After I'd made it to America, I became very ill. The doctor diagnosed me with cancer. I felt I should get this story written down as something to leave behind for my daughter. After her father is dead, how else would she know what he did at Tiananmen Square—how else would she know why we went there ... I was in the hospital for a year in the U.S. and a second year in Taiwan, and it was during this time that I wrote the book. And then I started to recover.

TIME: How did you find your faith?
Zhang: When I was on the run in northeast China, I found my way to a village, and came to hide in the house of a Christian farmer ... He would ask me to read the Bible to him. His Bible was handwritten—transcribed with a fountain pen. I read him the Gospel of John. He treated me well, shared with me the little he had—even killed his chicken for me to eat ... It was at that time that I started believing there was a God in this world. Because if there wasn't, then this world would be given over to demons. And you know in China we have had our demons. Mao Zedong was a demon—in his eyes a human life had no value whatsoever. Deng Xiaoping was a demon—he pointed the guns and tanks at defenseless students at Tiananmen.

TIME: Any thoughts on China now?
Zhang: I do believe China is progressing. I believe the government is changing the way they view me. But they still can't concede that I should be allowed to return. I think I will go back someday. I want to be the Billy Graham of China. And I don't think I'll have to wait too long. Maybe after I go back I can write another book: Return to China.