The US-based China Aid Association, which has contacts with local believers, said in the latest incident, two teachers of the Chinese House Church Alliance, Dong Shanshan and Xu Yuanyuan, both 24, were detained Monday, February 18, at a train station of Luohe City in Henan Province by Chinese security forces.
“They were taken away by 12 officers” of China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) while awaiting transportation to Beijing, and “their whereabouts are unknown,” the well-informed group told BosNewsLife. Four other Christian women were sentenced to five days detention for distributing Gospel tracks at a bus station in Taizhou city of Zhejiang province on January 31, the group added.
The latest arrests followed a crackdown in Shandong Province where 21 “major house church leaders” were “simultaneously sentenced to a labor camp” by Linyi City’s ‘Re-education Through Labor Commission’, CAA said.
“MASSIVE PERSECUTION”
This is “the most massive persecution case since 1983,” by Chinese authorities, the group claimed. The leaders were reportedly detained on December 7, last year when they gathered together for leadership training with 249 other church officials in Linyi City,
The group said.
“After paying fines and finishing detention ranging from a few days to a few weeks, the 249 were released. [However] the 21 most senior leaders were sentenced to [sentences ranging from] three years to one year and three months,” CAA said, citing its sources in the region.
The church officials have reportedly been accused with involvement in an "evil cult", described by CAA as “an arbitrary charge” often used to crackdown on non-registered house churches by the PSB.
Among the 21 sentenced are 17 men and 4 women, family members were quoted as saying. In 1983, thousands of house church leaders were sent to labor camps when China launched its first so-called "strike hard" or Yan Da, operation, CAA said.
DISMANTLING CHURCH
The CAA said the latest incidents show that China’s Communist government is “adamant about dismantling the House Church Alliance before the Beijing Olympic Games.”
Chinese authorities are reportedly concerned that devoted Christians, most of whom gather in house churches, will use the event to spread Christianity or get world attention for their plight. The Chinese government has denied rights abuses and maintains that Chinese Christians can gather in Communist-backed denominations.
In an open letter, seen by BosNewsLife, House Church Alliance President, Zhang Mingxuan urged the international community to intervene, after receiving no reply on two letters he previously send to China’s leader Hu Jintao. Since his conversion to Christianity in 1986, Pastor Zhang has been arrested, beaten and incarcerated 12 times, CAA alleged.
Most recently Chinese security forces and officials reportedly forced Zhang to close the orphanage he had been running with his two sons. “Zhang and the orphans have continued to look for places of residence, but have been refused several times by landlords who were threatened by officials not to lease to Zhang." He has been separated from his two sons, who were also "forced" to leave him by PSB officials, CAA said.
