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.”
Protestant ministers in the United States generally believe that religious persecution is a major problem in today’s world, and they believe the U.S. should impose sanctions against countries where this is occurring. These findings have just been released from a research study conducted among Protestant clergy in America.
Amid international pressure well-known house church leader Zhao Wenquan has been released from custody, two weeks after his May 9 arrest in Hegou Town, Meng Cheng County, Anhui Province, a human rights groups said Friday May 28.
Gu Xianggao was beaten to death on April 27 while in the custody of Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers. He was 28 years old.
For the first time in history, Chinese Christians gave evidence of persecution in April at a special meeting called by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva. Several speakers testified to beatings, imprisonment, torture and damage to church buildings in recent years.
Chinese Pastor Gong Shengliang of the South China Church has begged to be transferred from his current prison, telling his sisters “If you are able in any way, please transfer me to another prison – otherwise just come and pick up my corpse.”
A 100-year-old building that housed an unregistered Chinese house church was badly damaged on March 11, then completely destroyed March 31. The church was located in Dong Gang Xi village, Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. This congregation included about 300 members, and had existed for the past 20 years. Liu Fuen, 50, pastored the church throughout its history.
Pastor Gong Shengliang, the imprisoned leader of the South China Church, told relatives during a prison visit Monday that he fears for his life in Hongshan Prison, Wuhan City, Hubei Province.
Persecuted Chinese House Church leaders, including tortured and sexually abused women, have for the first time testified at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights amid claims that the Beijing government is increasing pressure on unregistered churches and active believers, ASSIST News Service (ANS) learned Monday April 5.
Human rights watchdog The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) urged Christians Saturday, March 13, to pray for three representatives of China?s rapidly growing house church movement who it said were due to appear in a Chinese court on charges of “providing intelligence to overseas organizations.”
Three Christians will appear in a Chinese court on Monday, facing charges of “providing intelligence to overseas organizations.”
A Chinese house church leader is on the run from Public Security Bureau officers after his church was raided February 9.
In January 2004, top cadres of China’s Religious Affairs Bureau and the policy-making United Front Work Department met for the annual National Religious Working Conference.
Registration is still a hot issue for China’s long-suffering house churches. The government insists on registration as the only means of legal existence for Protestant and Catholic churches. In practice, registration means subjection to the Communist Party’s Religious Affairs Bureau and other party organs, all of which are controlled by atheists.
The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) urged prayers for a jailed Christian Internet writer Zhang Shengqi and other Christian contacts who were arrested amid a crackdown against house churches across China,