The leader of six house churches in China’s capital Beijing, who was detained by security officers last year, is held at a detention facility where he is forced to carry out hard labor, human rights investigators said Friday, October 28.
The China Aid Association learned that as of October 21, 2005 at 7:30am, following more than 25 hours of house arrest, all of the nearly 50 arrested house church leaders were released.
Chinese police raided the house of a prominent Christian activist in Beijing shortly after other security forces first tortured and than expelled a Christian businessman from the hospital where he was treated for his wounds, church sources said Monday, September 10.
Mr. Ma Shulei, a full time house church evangelist, was arrested in Mianchi County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, along with his 58-year-old father, Mr. Ma Yinzhou, who is a house church pastor.
A Christian businessman and friend of an evangelist in China’s Xinjiang province was rushed to hospital after being “tortured” by security agents amid an ongoing “comprehensive campaign” against Christians in the region, a US-based religious rights organization said Saturday, October 1.
Chinese Christian Zhang Yi-nan was released from the Ping Ding Shan City Bailou Labor Camp in Henan Province, China on Sunday morning. Zhang’s wife, Ding Guizhen, and their son, Zhang Kairi, were waiting for him at the steel gate of the prison camp, but were not immediately allowed to welcome him home.
A Christian advocacy group expressed concern Monday, September 12 over “an unprecedented” decision by the United States to “deny asylum to a “house-church” Christian from Communist China.”
Christian Freedom International (CFI), a leading human rights organization, expressed concern Monday, August 8, about “a major crackdown” on Christians in China.
Wide-ranging persecution of Chinese Christians in recent months has dashed hopes of greater religious freedom from a new law on religion that took effect in March.
A major human rights group said Wednesday, June 29, it has received “credible reports” from China “that a nationwide campaign against unregistered house churches is underway” and that “hundreds” of Christians have been detained.
A major human rights group said Wednesday, June 15, it has obtained a copy of a government document outlining China’s “new offensive” on underground house churches.
In early March, China adopted the new Regulations on Religious Affairs, first announced by the government in December 2004. The government claims the new regulations are a step towards religious freedom. However, some Christian leaders have expressed serious concerns, particularly with the issue of church registration.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to attend a church service for Palm Sunday in Beijing, aides said Saturday, March 19, just hours after a Christian news agency published letters of alleged persecuted Christians.
Correspondence reveals personal trials, challenges facing house church Christians in China.
At least 10 foreign evangelical church leaders including eight Americans, one Taiwanese and an unknown number of South Koreans were detained and later deported by Chinese authorities, a Christian human rights watchdog said Thursday March 3.
China has announced a new law, which comes into effect on March 1, governing the freedom of religion.
Last week before his resignation as U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell said relations between China and the U.S. were at the best point they had been in more than 30 years, according to Agence France-Presse. However, that relationship may change as further evidence emerges of a widespread crackdown on the Chinese church.
Chinese contacts of The Voice of the Martyrs have learned that a prominent Beijing house church leader faces an extremely harsh sentence if convicted in his upcoming trial.
In a two-day international conference on religion and law held in Beijing on October 18 and 19, Chinese officials said they were open to changes in religious policy.
Speaking at the recent International Christian Human Rights Conference at Westminster Chapel in London, Chinese Christian leader Peter Xu said: “They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours.”