security forces reportedly kidnapped a key house church leader as part of alleged efforts by the Chinese government to silence critics.
The US-based religious rights group China Aid Association (CAA) said Pastor Zhang Mingxuan, an apparently vocal fighter for religious rights in the Communist nation, was "missing suddenly November 18" along with his younger son, Zhang Chuang. They "were supposed to return from a trip by train to Beijing but his elder son, Zhang Jian was not able to find them at the train station."
Three hours later a Chinese official from the Beijing Office for Nanyang City Affairs of Henan Province called Zhang Jian and told him his father and younger brother "were being questioned about their unofficial petition activities," CAA added. He was unlikely to be released during the Bush visit.
"CAA learned the kidnapped…Pastor Zhang was sent from Beijing and is now detained in an unknown location in…Henan province. According to a reliable source, the action to remove pastor Zhang from Beijing is to prevent him from having any meeting with the visiting US President George W Bush," the group said.
Pastor Zhang was reportedly earlier detained for 27 hours on October 20 because of his leadership role at the Chinese House Church Association which was formally established that day. The association consists of over 50 house church leaders from 20 provinces.
DEFENSE LAWYER EXPELLED
Besides Pastor Zhang, the leading defense lawyer for jailed Beijing House Church Pastor Cai Zhuohua was forced by Chinese security officials to leave Beijing and warned by Chinese authorities not to engage in any "unofficial activities," CAA claimed.
"He was instructed to leave Beijing and to stay in a verifiable temporary location in Tianjin City,
about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away," the group said. Under "intensive pressure" from Chinese authorities Pastor Cai and his wife and brother-in-law withdrew their appeal against prison sentences for printing hundreds of thousands of Bibles and other Christian literature, CAA said earlier.
The 34-year old pastor, who led at least six house churches, received a three year sentence November 8, from the Beijing People’s Court of Haidian on charges of "illegal business practices" for playing a key role in printing and distributing Bibles and publications such as house church magazine Ai Yan or ‘Love Feast’. Pastor Cai’s wife Xiao Yunfei, 33, was sentenced to two years and her brother Xiao Gaowenone, 37, to one and a half years in prison on the same charges.
MASSIVE ARRESTS REPORTED
CAA said it also learned that eight house church pastors and 100 active believers were released Saturday, November 19, after being detained during a church service at Huangfu Town in Henan Province on November 3. There church property was not given back however, the group added.
Among the eight released leaders were Pastor Huang Hailiang, 40, twenty something Pastor Wei Lin, who "were tortured with their legs wounded by interrogators on November 3," CAA said, citing a source.
"They feel very happy and honored because they are the blessed who are persecuted for the righteousness." said CAA President Bob Fu who spoke with one of the church leaders. However "it is no coincident that [these] kind of [incidents] should happen…before President Bush’s visit," he stressed. "We urge the international community and President Bush to pressure the Chinese government to protect freedom of religion and other human rights."
Through a pre-trip meeting in Washington with the Dalai Lama, advance interviews with foreign reporters and a speech earlier in the week in Kyoto, Japan, Bush emphasized the need for greater religious freedom in China.
He was to underline that point by worshipping at a government-approved church in Beijing, the Voice Of America (VOA) network reported Saturday, November 19.
TWO OFFICIAL CHURCHES
About 17 million worship in the two officially organized churches of China — the Protestant Three Self Patriotic Movement with 12 million members and the Catholic Patriotic Association with 5 million members, according to church estimates.
Over 60-million other Christians are believed to worship in the ‘house churches’, often called that way as they are not recognized and have therefore no possibility to organize gatherings openly in for instance church buildings.
President Bush arrived in China on the third stop of his eight-day trip to Asia. President Bush said China should give its people greater freedoms and he called rival Taiwan "an example of successful Asian democracy."
CHINA DENIES ABUSES
However in published remarks the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao denied violations of religious righths. "Chinese people enjoy all forms of democracy and freedom under law, including freedom of religion and belief," Liu reportedly said. "We hope to increase consensus and mutual confidence through President Bush’s visit," he added.
China was willing to discuss its human rights "on the basis of equality, mutual respect, and non-interference in internal affairs," Liu said. But Liu told reporters China need not take Taiwan as its model.
"Taiwan has its circumstances, and the mainland has its circumstances," he was quoted as saying by news reports. (With BosNewsLife News Center and reports from China).
