government-led crackdown on evangelical Christians.
US-based China Aid Association (CAA), a religious rights group which maintains close contacts with house churches, said "a number of house churches from Beijing, Shandong [province] and Guangdong [province] were forced to close by the local authorities" in recent weeks.
It came shortly after 30 house church leaders from Langzhong City in Sichuan Province were arrested on May 27 and May 28, CAA said. They were forced to pay fines and at least 14 leaders "received criminal detention after they were brutally abused," the group claimed.
It remained unclear Wednesday, July 5, how many leaders of the group were still in prison, but all are expected to be jailed soon as they received "criminal detention notices," CAA added.
GROUP MEETING
CAA quoted "eyewitnesses and family members" of the alleged victims as saying that the raid and arrests happened as the group was attending a church meeting of co-workers. "After the meeting, fifteen members of the Public Security Bureau [arriving] in six police vehicles raided," the gathering, CAA added in a statement to BosNewsLife. "Some of the arrested [Christians] were released on May 28. The [next] morning [on May 29], fourteen [leaders] received criminal detention notices."
CAA identified the fourteen believers as Pastors Li Ming, Wang Yuan, Li Jinbo, Li Chengxi, Shi Zhihe, Gou Yongcai, Jin Jiyun, Sister Wang Shuhua, Gou Qingju, Ke Xiufang, Sun Changfen, Hu Yongju, Zhang Shulan and Liao Zhoulan.
Pastors Li Ming, Wang Yuan, Li Jinbo and Jin Jiyun are leaders of the Chinese House Church Alliance which was established in 2004 and is currently made up of about 300,000 members from various house church movements scattered across 21 provinces, CAA said.
ILLEGAL ARRESTS
"These illegal arrests and detentions are a very disturbing indication of the deteriorating condition of religious freedom in China," said Bob Fu, a former house church pastor who currently leads CAA. "We call upon the international community to demand that the Chinese government honor their international obligations to respect and protect the religious freedoms of the Chinese citizens," Fu added.
CAA has demanded "the immediate release" of the Christian leaders. China’s authorities have denied human rights abuses and say Christians are free to gather in the ‘official’ churches backed by the Communist government.
But church watchers say most of China’s estimated 80 million Christians prefer to worship in house churches, named this way as they are often held in homes of believers. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from China).
