Hua Huiqi, 46, and his brother, Hua Huilin, 52, an electrician, were taken into custody while cycling to Kuanjie Protestant church in Beijing at dawn, the brother told reporters hours after he was released.
"Police came to our house last night and told me not to let my brother venture out today. I told him not to go because it’s during the Olympic Games and this period is sensitive. My brother was baptised at the church and determined to go. I went along to try to protect him," he added in several statements monitored by BosNewsLife.
Police seized the activist’s Bible and cell phone and forced him into a car which sped away, the brother said. He later told Hua Huilin that the activist had escaped when plainclothes police watching him fell asleep, the brother said, adding that Hua Huiqi’s whereabouts were unknown.
‘PATRIOTIC CHURCHES’
Religious freedom is enshrined in China’s constitution, but the government expects Christians to worship in "patriotic" churches under state control with clergy vetted by the state. Government officials have privately suggested that may be as many as 130 million Christians, including 20 million Catholics, in China, much higher than previous government estimates.
Most of them are believed to worship in underground ‘house churches’ as they do not want to gather in churches run by the government, such as the one visited by President Bush with first lady Laura Bush. After attending the service, Sunday, August 10, Bush gathered for photos with parishioners on the front steps, reporters said.
"It just goes to show that God is universal," Bush was heard saying. "No state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion" — a reference to China’s tight control of churches. It was not clear if Bush was aware of Hua’s situation.
It came shortly after prominent rights activist Zeng Jinyan was feared to have been detained by police before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group said on Saturday, August 9. All attempts to contact Zeng had failed and she was thought to have ‘disappeared’ from her Beijing home on August 7, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) reported.
‘RESIDENTIAL SURVEILLANCE’
She has lived under ‘residential surveillance’, or virtual house arrest, for many months and was already prevented by state security police from meeting foreign journalists or speaking to them by telephone.
Zeng’s husband, prominent dissident Hu Jia, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison in April after a court convicted him of subversion. Both Hu and Zeng have spoken out on human rights issues in China and voiced support the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader.
Earlier last week, the president of the umbrella House Church Alliance, Zhang Mingxuan and his wife Xie Fenlang were arrested by Chinese security forces, along with fellow pastor Wu Jiang He, several Christian sources said. They are being held in an undisclosed location in Henan Province.
Zhang is a well-known evangelical leader, who has openly protested against what he views as China’s harsh treatment of house church Christians. I
DEPORTATIONS REPORTED
There were also reports of deportations to the United States of five protesters Sunday, August 10, including two Americans and two Canadians — of the New-York based group Students for a Free Tibet.
In the Tibet protest Sunday, August 10, Padma-Dolma Fielitz, a 21-year-old Tibetan, and another activist held the Himalayan region’s national flag aloft just outside the south entrance of Tiananmen Square, according to a statement by the group.
Photos on the group’s Web site show a woman identified as Padma-Dolma being dragged on the ground as police and plainclothes agents try to wrest the flag away from her. Shortly after, three other activists tried to unveil a banner that said "Tibetans are dying for freedom" but were stopped by authorities, the group said in a statement released by The Associated Press (AP).
John Hocevar, a member of the activist group who videotaped the protest, told AP Television News that Chinese officials had escorted the group onto a plane bound for the United States. (With reporting by BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
