China Closes Australian Company For Promoting Christianity
By BosNewsLife News Center
BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife) — Chinese authorities have shut down a multi million dollar branch of Australia-based Enoch Group because it allegedly promoted Christianity and hired Christian workers, investigators close to the case told BosNewsLife Thursday, November 1.
Guangzhou Enoch Biological Science and Technology Co., a bio-engineering corporation in Guangdong province, was raided by various Chinese government agencies, said Christian rights group Chine Aid Association (CAA), which supports the allegedly persecuted Christians.
The local company owners, a married couple identified as Daniel and Eliza Ng, were put under house arrest from October 12 till last week, October 25, while dozens of employees were “interrogated and some beaten and detained for several hours†in the nearby Panyu district police station, CAA added. .
Valuable company assets, including 50 computers, check books and sensitive company product formulas were confiscated, along with the Ng’s mobile phones and other personal properties, the group said. Since September 13 the Chinese government also froze personal assets of the Ng’s, who obtained Australian citizenship after leaving Hong Kong
THIRTEEN MILLION DOLLARS
“The move to shut down the company and freeze the nearly 100 million Yuan ($13 million) of in assets and patents, is purely politically motivated,†CAA said. It quoted high ranking officials as. saying that central government leaders were “upset that the Enoch Group hired a large number of Chinese Christians.â€
Chinese leaders reportedly suspect that the Enoch Group uses its company slogan of “love, peace, joy and faithfulness†to promote Christianity. Local Christians and other sources say the latest raids are aimed at sending a strong warning signal to other foreign businesses in China owned by Christians.
Chinese officials have denied human rights abuses, saying the country respects religious freedom within Chinese laws. However rights watchers say there is increasing evidence that authorities crackdown on especially evangelical Christians and house churches amid fears within the Communist Party that they will use the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing to spread Christianity in the country. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos and reporting from China).
Copyright 2007 BosNewsLife. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without our prior written consent.