His daughter, Esther Zhang Huixin, who is based in the US, said that Pastor Zhang is suffering both mentally and physically as a result of meagre food rations and sleep deprivation: ‘They cruelly torture my father. He’s unable to see the sun during the day. He’s deprived of sleep for 24 hours at a time. The prison gives him only one steamed bun a day. According to people who have been released from that prison, my father is barely alive.’