Chinese police arrest 130 Christians, among them three Americans


23 August 2000 (Newsroom) — Chinese police detained 130 members of a Protestant house church movement in central Henan province on Wednesday, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group. Among the arrested were three American citizens, the Information Centre for Human Rights and the Democratic Movement in China said.

The church members are part of the Fangcheng Church founded by Zhang Rongliang, who was sentenced to two years in labor camp last December. Authorities released Zhang in February, citing health reasons, but five other church leaders sentenced at the same time continue to serve terms of one to three years. Zhang was accused of being the leader of a cult and therefore dangerous to society.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin declared a “war on cults” in 1998, which has included a crackdown on unregistered churches. China forbids religious believers from worshiping outside of state-sanctioned groups. Authorities have tried to brand Zhang’s movement as heretical, but the house church leader was a co-signer in 1998 of a “Confession of Faith,” which aligned with mainstream Protestant doctrine. One of the document’s purposes was to help convince the government to recognize the house church movements.

The Hong Kong rights group said the three Americans arrested, all residents of California, were Henry Chu, Patricia Lan, and Sandee Lin. The church members are being held at the Xihua county jail, the Information Centre said.

Copyright © 2000 Newsroom.
Used with permission.

We're being CENSORED ... HELP get the WORD OUT! SHARE!!!
Fair Use Notice:This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Worthy Christian News