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20 Christians Rounded Up in Shanghai As Chinese Government Seeks to Extinguish Belief
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Twenty Christians, including one Taiwanese-American dual-citizen, were taken into custody in Shanghai yesterday as China continues its crusade against belief.
Michael Yu, a Taiwanese -American Pastor who ministers to Christian business people in China, was among those apprehended and was later released before Chinese authorities prevented him from boarding his plane. He was scheduled to attend a dinner party with former U.S. President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
U.S. Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback noted last month that “it seems that the Chinese government is at war with faith” amid calls from Western diplomats for China to stay its hand in the illegal roundup of over a million Uighur Muslims.
Yu, who said he had never encountered trouble in the past flying back and forth from China to Taiwan, surmised that the harassment is reflective of shifting political winds in the communist country, and feared harsher treatment from authorities due to his Taiwanese background.
Four major Chinese unregistered churches have been banned since September, a development with which Brownback said: “the Trump administration is deeply concerned.”