By BosNewsLife Asia Service
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– Security forces raided a Bible school in eastern China run by the vice-president of the Chinese House Church Alliance (CHCA) and briefly detained a dozen people, a Christian advocacy group said Monday July 20.
The U.S.-based China Aid Association (CAA) told BosNewslife that Pastor Shi Enhao and 11 students were detained during the July 16 raid on the school in in Suqian city of China’s Jiangsu province.
“They were all released around 5 p.m. the same day. The students were sent back to their hometowns and warned not to come back for Bible study,” CAA said.
The school is part of a Bible education school run by CHCA, a major umbrella group of raoidly expanding ‘house churches’ in China. ‘House churches’ are often organized in homes and building outside government control. CAA condemned the raid, saying the Bible school had been in existence for several years “without any problems from authorities.”
There has been a growing crackdown reported on Chinese house churches and affiliated institutions.
Chinese officials have repeatedly denied wrong doing saying they are upholding the law of the land and that the country’s estimated 130 million Christians are free to worship in government backed churches. (With reporting by Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife).
