on unofficial churches ahead of US President George W. Bush’s visit to the Communist nation, a religious rights group said Friday, October 21.
Texas-based Christian Aid Association (CAA) said it learned the church leaders were detained Thursday, October 20, by security forces while attending a retreat in Gougezhuang Village, in the Laishui County of China’s Hebei Province.
It quoted an eyewitness as saying that the leaders were "from independent house churches from over 20" provinces. "The retreat was planned to discuss how best to help the poor, orphaned, and the floating population in urban areas," CAA added.
CAA, which has close contacts in the region, said the arrests were made in the late afternoon local time by officers of what is known as the Public Security Bureau and religious affairs officials. The whereabouts of the roughly 50 house church leaders were not immediately known.
BEATEN CHINESE CHRISTIAN
At least one of the leaders, who CAA identified as Ms. Dai Hong, was allegedly beaten by one of the officers. Among those arrested "is a famous evangelist, pastor Zhang Mingxuan who along with two other Christians once ran a nursing home in Beijing," CAA told BosNewsLife.
"He was previously detained prior to President Bush’s trip to China in February, 2002." CAA President Bob Fu said it was "no coincident that this kind of incident [happened] again before President Bush’s upcoming visit to China next month."
He accused the Chinese government of "systematically targeting the house church movement in China." Most of China’s up to 80-million people worship in a growing number of unofficial house churches, while only 17 million Christians are estimated to gather in the state run Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement and the smaller Catholic Patriotic Association.
GOVERNMENT DENIES ABUSES
Chinese officials could not be reached for comment. However China’s government has denied human rights abuses in the past, saying it only arrests members of "sects" deemed dangerous to society or those who are violating Chinese law. "We urge the international community and President Bush to pressure the Chinese government to protect freedom of religion and other human rights," Fu said in a message to BosNewsLife.
President Bush is expected to visit Beijing on November 19, at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has worked with the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia to persuade North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons programs.
However the reported detention of church leaders has added to concern among human right activists that China has abandoned its practice of releasing some political prisoners before a major state visit.
GESTURES OF GOODWILL
In the past such releases were seen as giving Beijing bargaining power before visits as a gesture of goodwill, but John Kamm, whose Dui Hua Foundation works to free Chinese political prisoners, said Friday, October 21, that thinking may be changing.
"There has been a change since the new leadership started," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency, referring to Hu Jintao becoming president in 2003. "There is a new thinking and I have heard that the new leadership is less inclined to do it," Kamm reportedly told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Beijing.
To date his organization discovered names of 2,500 people sentenced for "political crimes" but he said that likely represents only about 10 percent of the total. CAA said it has urged its supporters to write letters of concern to the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC via: Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, 2300 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20008. (With BosNewsLife News Center and reports from China).
